Family Portraits: Children in Impressionist Art

The impressionist artists accorded great importance to family life, often portraying their own mothers, wives, and offspring in scenes of maternity and childhood.

The impressionist masters were known for their close relationships; peers, family, art dealers, and patrons all featured regularly in their artworks, and children were favored subjects. All aspects of childhood and family life at the end of the nineteenth century—maternity, nannies, education, games, animals, adolescence—were depic...