Gottfried Helnwein, The Child, Robert Flynn Johnson, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Helnwein's subject matter is the human condition. The metaphor for his art is dominated by the image of the child, but not the carefree innocent child of popular imagination. Helnwein instead creates the profoundly disturbing yet compellingly provocative image of the wounded child. The child scarred physically and the child scarred emotionally from within.
Gottfried Helnwein, QuotesGottfried Helnwein, TextsGottfried Helnwein, WorksGottfried Helnwein, Ninth November NightGottfried Helnwein, BibliographyGottfried Helnwein, The Child in ArtGottfried Helnwein, BlogGottfried Helnwein, VideosGottfried Helnwein, Links
  Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, 1510, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Leonardo da Vinci, The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, 1510, Oil on wood, 168 x 130 cm (5 1/2 x 4 1/2 ft.)
Musée du Louvre, Paris

 

 

 

The Child in Art

 

THE CHILD IN ART
The Child as a Subject of Art

 

FINE ART

LITERATURE

FILM

MUSIC

 

 

 

 

FINE ART

In art history, before the end of the eighteenth century, the child as an independent subject matter hardly existed. The child usually appeared symbolically or allegorically as cupid, putti, or an angel. The child also appeared as a miniature adult as in the depiction of young gods, kings, or, in Christianity, Jesus. This, however was to change with the advent of the Romantic movement in Europe. Around 1800, artists, such as William Blake, Louis Leopold Boilly, and Phillip Otto Runge, began to have children appear as individuals in their works, disconnected from their previous symbolic baggage. The image of this now liberated child was one that promised innocence, freedom, and curiosity. However, now made mortal, there was also the necessary introduction of emotions, sexuality, and the prospect of pain, suffering, and death.

There are a number of these earlier artists who were especially meaningful to Helnwein in their portrayal of children. Among them were Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) with his adoration of feminine adolescence; Edvard Munch and his depiction of suffering and sexual awakening; and Balthus with his preoccupation with secrets and the erotic.

The children in these works have a knowing look in their eyes. There was a sense of life experienced, both good and bad, which made these works so intense and, in their own day, so controversial. It was apparent from the reception that these artists and others received, however, that any derivation from the most bland representation of children as innocents was cause for violent backlash from society. The public was then, as it is now, very uncomfortable about showing the child as having a sexual identity, however subtle, or suffering in any way, whether physically or emotionally. Artists like Munch were willing to risk the wrath of propriety in seeking out this unexplored area of human experience. For Gottfried Helnwein, it became the major theme of his career.

 

Robert Flynn Johnson
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
anlässlich der Ausstellung The Child - Works by Gottfried Helnwein, 2004

 

 

Tutankhamun 1332 - 1323 B.C.

Jan van Eyck 1390 - 1441

Dierick Bouts 1410/20 - 1475

Petrus Christus 1410/20 - 1473

Giovanni Bellini 1430 - 1516

Andrea Mantegna 1431 - 1506

Hans Memling 1433 - 1494

Domenico Ghirlandaio 1449 - 1494

Leonardo Da Vinci 1452 -1519

Gerard David 1460 - 1523

Giovanni Francesco Caroto 1470 - 1546

Lucas Cranach der Ältere 1472 - 1553

Raphael Sanzio 1483 - 1520

Titian 1485 - 1576

Lorenzo Lotto 1480 - 1557

Hans Holbein der Jüngere 1497 - 1543

Bronzino 1503 - 1572

Pieter Bruegel der Ältere 1525 - 1569

Peter Paul Rubens 1577 - 1640

Georges de la Tour 1593 - 1652

Diego Velazquez 1599 - 1660

Rembrandt van Rijn 1606 - 1669

Jean Baptiste Greuze 1725 - 1805

John Singleton Copley 1738 - 1815

Francisco de Goya 1746 - 1828

Philipp Otto Runge 1777 - 1810

Ludwig Schnorr Von Carolsfeld 1788 - 1853

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller 1793 - 1865

Peter Fendi 1796 - 1842

Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix 1798 - 1863

Friedrich von Amerling 1803 - 1887

Theodor Hildebrandt 1804 - 1874

Josef Danhauser 1805 - 1845

Franz Eybl 1805 - 1880

Heinrich Hoffmann 1809 - 1894

Johann Baptist Reiter 1813 - 1890

John Everett Millais 1829 - 1896

Lewis Carroll 1832 - 1898

Wilhelm Busch 1832 - 1908

Edgar Degas 1834 - 1917

Franz Defregger 1835 - 1921

Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1841 - 1919

Vincent Willem van Gogh 1853 - 1890

John Singer Sargent 1856 - 1925

James Ensor 1860 - 1949

Edvard Munch 1863 - 1944

Winsor McCay 1867 - 1934

Lyonel Charles Adrian Feininger 1871 - 1956

Pablo Picasso 1881 - 1973

Chaim Soutine 1893 - 1943

Norman Rockwell 1894 - 1978

Balthus 1908 - 2001

Lucian Freud 1922 - Present

Antonio López García 1936 - Present

Günter Brus 1938 - Present

Joel-Peter Witkin 1939 - Present

Chuck Close 1940 - Present

Robert Crumb 1943 - Present

Christian Boltanski 1944 - Present

Gottfried Helnwein 1948 - Present

Marlene Dumas 1953 - Present

Cindy Sherman 1954 - Present

Trevor Brown Unknown - Present

Yoshitomo Nara 1959 - Present

 

 

Gottfried Helnwein, QuotesGottfried Helnwein, TextsGottfried Helnwein, WorksGottfried Helnwein, Ninth November NightGottfried Helnwein, BibliographyGottfried Helnwein, The Child in ArtGottfried Helnwein, BlogGottfried Helnwein, VideosGottfried Helnwein, Links