Gottfried Helnwein | The Child

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