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Genre Scenes and Portraiture: Representing Childhood
Gender Genres
19.06.2020 | Nina Meisel

Helen Levitt, Boys, New York, ca. 1940, black and white photograph, © Film Documents LLC

The emergence of bourgeois society in the nineteenth century and its quest for social expression made genre scenes and portraiture popular. They took on a new meaning with the success of photography and portraiture at the end of the century. Women artists of the period, kept at a distance from major painting (historical and religious scenes, official portraits and so on), found a means of creative expression in these types of images.

The home and what it is composed of became a source of inspiration that allowed these female observers of the everyday to combine expectations of bourgeois life – being a good mother and wife – with those of being an artist. As such, Sigrid Hjertén (1885-1948), confined to her home where she raised her son, painted outdoor scenes viewed through her window. Artists also used their children as models. During the Old Regime, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) painted tender portraits of her daughter Julie. Later, Suzanne Valadon (1863-1938) portrayed the young Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955) in his early years, and Claude Batho (1935-1981) assembled pictures of her daughters in the portfolio Portraits d’enfants (1975). Photographers such as Ergy Landau (1896-1967) and Olga Maté (1878-1961) specialised in, and flourished with, children’s portraits. In certain works, the mother would join her child, as in Mother and Child (1939) by Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012).

Certain artists are interested in the filial relationship and the way of expressing the loss of a child, which sometimes takes on a morbid approach in the case of Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), or borders on psychosis with Alice Neel (1900-1984). Other female artists observe childhood outside the intimate setting, such as the Swedish painter Siri Derkert (1888-1973), who depicted street children in the despair of their daily lives. After her, photographers Eva Besnyo (1910-2003), Klara Langer (1912-1973) and Helen Levitt (1913-2009) made street children the subjects of their work. The theme of childhood is also a way for artists to find their own moments of innocence. It is this familiar universe that Moroccan artist Chaïbia Talal (1929-2004) tried to reconstruct in some of her paintings.

Everyday life can be found in the work of more contemporary artists who disrupt the traditional genre scene, stripping it of its static characteristic. Mary Kelly (b. 1941) no longer freezes instants of the everyday on a canvas or in a photograph; she uses events such as postpartum period to scrutinise and study it over time. In Mother Tongue (2002), Zineb Sedira (b. 1963) turns a banal scene of a discussion between a mother and her daughter into an analytical tool that transcends generations and materialises cultural boundaries.

While today women artists have taken their practice out of the home, some still find it interesting. However, this should not be considered the only source of inspiration for women artists. In fact, this theme is being called into question and women artists are emancipating themselves from it, sometimes even perverting it, as seen with South African artist Marlène Dumas (b. 1953), who depicts deformed children’s bodies in her paintings.

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1885 — 1948 | Sweden
Sigrid  Hjertén - AWARE

Sigrid Hjertén

1863 — 1938 | France
Suzanne Valadon - AWARE

Suzanne Valadon

1935 — 1981 | France
Claude  Batho - AWARE

Claude Batho

1896 — Hungary | 1967 — France
Ergy Landau - AWARE

Ergy Landau

1913 — 2009 | United States
Helen Levitt - AWARE

Helen Levitt

1878 — 1961 | Hungary
Olga  Máté - AWARE

Olga Máté

1915 — United States | 2012 — Mexico
Elizabeth Catlett - AWARE

Elizabeth Catlett

1867 — Russia | 1945 — Germany
Käthe Kollwitz - AWARE

Käthe Kollwitz

1900 — 1984 | United States
Alice Neel - AWARE

Alice Neel

1888 — 1973 | Sweden
Siri Derkert - AWARE

Siri Derkert

1910 — Hungary | 2003 — Netherlands
Eva Besnyő - AWARE

Eva Besnyő

1912 — 1973 | Hungary
Klára Langer - AWARE

Klára Langer

1929 — 2004 | Morocco
Chaïbia Talal - AWARE

Chaïbia Talal

1941 | United States
Mary Kelly - AWARE

Mary Kelly

1963 | France
Zineb Sedira - AWARE

Zineb Sedira

1953 | South Africa
Marlene Dumas - AWARE

Marlene Dumas

1950 | Nepal
Shashikala Tiwari - AWARE

Shashikala Tiwari

1883 — 1956 | France
Marie Laurencin - AWARE

Marie Laurencin

1963 | United Kingdom
Gillian Wearing - AWARE

Gillian Wearing

1911 — 1991 | Hungary
Marian Reismann - AWARE

Marian Reismann

1865 — Poland | 1940 — France
Olga Boznańska - AWARE

Olga Boznańska

1856 — Germany | 1927 — France
Louise Breslau - AWARE

Louise Breslau

1858 — Ukraine | 1884 — France
Marie Bashkirtseff - AWARE

Marie Bashkirtseff

1856 — 1942 | United States
Anna Elizabeth Klumpke - AWARE

Anna Elizabeth Klumpke

1859 — 1935 | France
Virginie Demont-Breton - AWARE

Virginie Demont-Breton

1845 — 1928 | France
Madeleine  Lemaire (Jeanne Magdelaine Lemaire, dite) - AWARE

Madeleine Lemaire (Jeanne Magdelaine Lemaire, dite)

1844 — United States | 1926 — France
Mary Cassatt - AWARE

Mary Cassatt

1855 — Austria | 1927 — United-Kingdom
Marianne Stokes (née Maria Léopoldine Preindlsberger) - AWARE

Marianne Stokes (née Maria Léopoldine Preindlsberger)

1860 — 1957 | France
Gabrielle Debillemont-Chardon - AWARE

Gabrielle Debillemont-Chardon

1939 — 2020 | Algeria
Leila Ferhat - AWARE

Leila Ferhat

1922 — Germany | 2013 — Israel
Ruth Schloss - AWARE

Ruth Schloss

1908 — 2004 | Spain
Francis Bartolozzi (Pitti) - AWARE

Francis Bartolozzi (Pitti)

1926 — Jamaica | 2018 — United States
Dorothy Henriques-Wells - AWARE

Dorothy Henriques-Wells

1875 — 1961 | Bulgaria
Elena Karamihaylova - AWARE

Elena Karamihaylova

1908 — Ottoman Empire (today North Macedonia) | 1996 — Bulgaria
Vera Todorova Nedkova - AWARE

Vera Todorova Nedkova

1920 — 2011 | Colombia
Lucy Tejada - AWARE

Lucy Tejada

1872 — 1937 | France
Jane Atché (dite Jal) - AWARE

Jane Atché (dite Jal)

1901 — 1980 | Estonia
Aino Bach - AWARE

Aino Bach

1910 — 1943 | Hungary
Kata Sugár - AWARE

Kata Sugár

1948 | Israel
Haya Graetz-Ran - AWARE

Haya Graetz-Ran

1921 | Paraguay
Olga Blinder - AWARE

Olga Blinder

1895 — 1960 | Uruguay
Petrona Viera - AWARE

Petrona Viera

1749 — 1808 | Netherlands
Christina Chalon - AWARE

Christina Chalon

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