Pictures of Childhood: a close study of Sir Joshua Reynolds`s The Strawberry Girl, including a selection of his paintings of children, read in light of his The Discourses on Art and Jean-Jacques Rousseau`s Emile, or On Education.

Abstract

Pictures of Childhood is a study of Sir Joshua Reynolds s paintings of children in light of Reynolds s The Discourses on Art, 1769-1790, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau s Emile, or On Education, 1762. A close reading of The Discourses on Art reveals that Reynolds thought art should seek a general truth, and that art should make an impression on the beholder s imagination and feeling. In Emile, Rousseau abandons original sin. This led to a perception of childhood as a happy and content phase of life. Furthermore, Rousseau emphasized childhood by letting the child explore the world on its own terms. In this thesis, I will analyse Reynolds s painting The Strawberry Girl, 1772-73, as well as a selection of Reynolds s paintings of children. I aim at investigating the relations between The Discourses on Art and Reynolds s paintings of children and as a result promote Reynolds as a conveyer of the different aspects and sentiments of childhood. Reynolds and Rousseau both affected their time greatly, and it is likely that their paths have crossed. I therefore explore in what ways Rousseau s writings in Emile, knowingly and unknowingly, are present in Reynolds s joyful and tender renderings of children. As a result, I found that Reynolds s artistic development embodies the establishment of the innocent and content child in visual art.