Children at the National Gallery

I went to the National Gallery with my 23 month old grand son the other day. I love having a theme to guide my looking when I go to museums; sometimes painting technique, sometimes composition, sometimes faces, etc. If you have been following this blog, you have heard this before. So, seeing as I had a child with me, we decided to look at children. Here are some of the conclusions we drew:

Siblings. I sincerely hope the group on the left was a retrospect, painted after all of the children were already adults!  I decided that the group on the right were their generations version of the Kardashian sisters.

Family Portraits. Obviously these painters had experience with kids, and how tough it is to get them to sit still for the family portrait! (except of course for the obedient oldest who is holding the pose while her siblings keep mom and dad busy)

Madonna and Child. No discussion of kids in art would be complete without a look at the most famous mother and child in history. On the left we see an infant who obviously had a Nautilus available in the womb. However the sculpture on the right was done by someone who knows about wonderful baby bellies!

Home Life. If I had to choose to have the childhood of the Dutch peasant on the left or the English future king on the right, the choice would be easy... I would go for the windblown hair, big smile and rosy cheeks. 

Me and My Grandkids. Finally, we found one we could relate to. Here is a painting of me working on a painting of my two grandsons.
It was a fun day. Thanks for the tour, Liam.