Imagining Childhood
Imagining Childhood by Erika Langmuir, published by Yale University Press in January 2006, is an illustrated exploration of the representation of children in Western art. This 263-page book delves into how images of childhood are not mere reflections of reality but imaginative constructs that signify a unique stage of human life and the broader human condition. Langmuir traverses various historical periods and artistic genres, from ancient Egyptian amulets to Picasso’s Guernica, to reveal the complexities surrounding the portrayal of children in art.
Readers will find a rich examination of how these artistic representations reflect society’s ambivalent attitudes toward children and the diverse roles that art has played throughout history. The book includes both renowned works and lesser-known artifacts, emphasizing that the concept of childhood has been continually reinterpreted across time and cultures. Through this comprehensive analysis, Langmuir invites readers to consider the multifaceted nature of childhood as depicted in art, highlighting its significance in understanding human experience.
Official synopsis Publisher
The images of children that abound in Western art do not simply mirror reality; they are imaginative constructs, representing childhood as a special stage of human life, or emblematic of the human condition itself. In a compelling book ranging widely across time, national boundaries, and genres from ancient Egyptian amulets to Picasso’s Guernica, Erika Langmuir demonstrates that no historic period has a monopoly on the ‘discovery of childhood’. Famous pictures by great artists, as well as barely known anonymous artefacts, illustrate not only Western society’s perennially ambivalent attitudes to children, but also the many and varied functions that works of art have played throughout its history.
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