Because of the nature of early photographs and portraiture — both of which took a long time to create — we’re used to seeing children in the past looking very still, formal and grim. You therefore tend to think of them as a different species, whereas the reality is that they would have moved and talked and laughed in just the same ways that we do, and a good portrait will show you that.
One of the hardest things about being a parent today is drawing the line between protecting and stifling your children. Children in the past did seem to have more freedom. Behind our house in Swansea when I was growing up was a wood — more of a copse, really — where people would dump things: a pram, a pile of books . . . To us it was wonderful. Every day there was a new treasure trove to explore and, as well as the human detritus, there was wild rhubarb, wild raspberries and a stream. I mourn that we can’t, today, with our happy hats on, send our children out to the woods or down to the shops. But you can recapture some of this freedom, at least, in images and stories from the past.
Six of the best portraits of childhood
Child Evacuees, Daily Herald Archive, 1938
The lack of possessions is so striking. They’ve all got their best coats on, and presumably some sandwiches in those paper bags, but that’s it. Every face tells its own story.
Dylan Thomas, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone
This story is brilliantly done; it perfectly captures the blurred sense of childhood where the memory of any one Christmas is probably an aggregate of many Christmases. The Edward Ardizzone illustrations set it off perfectly; the characters seem to move, almost as if in a dream.
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Bust of a Roman boy, Pergamon Museum, Berlin
This boy reminds me very much of my son. We think of people far back in history as being so different but recently I did a child’s singalong book in which the oldest song was a Roman one and one we all still know: the King of the Castle. “Rex erit qui recte faciet” (he will be king who acts correctly) were the words.
The Children’s Crusade, Paula Rego, 1999
It’s a creepy illustration; a reminder of the evil that is looming in the real world and waiting to pounce.
Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange, 1936
What a beautiful photograph. She has so much dignity and poise and her children are finding solace — as every child does — by nuzzling her neck. And my goodness, look how well kept her children’s hair is — and what great haircuts too. There is an awful lot of pride in this photograph.
Portrait of the Infanta by Wybrand de Geest, 1610
When my children were young we lived in South Carolina. The fashionable thing then was to dress your daughter in a smocked dress with a stiff bow on the head. Wanting my daughter to look nice I attempted this look on her but she wouldn’t have any of it. This portrait makes you wonder about this toddler’s life.
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