The Charleton Children (Primary Title)
Showing the Way (Alternate Title)
Thomas Gainsborough, English, 1727 - 1788 (Artist)
This portrait shows Robert John and Rhoda Jane, the children of Gainsborough's friend and doctor, Mr. Rice Charleton, as the artist first encountered them on a visit to Charleton's country home as Woodhouse Down, near Bristol. Robert's outstretched arm points the artist toward his destination and highlights for the viewer the idyllic beauty of the river valley below. The children's rosy cheeks and white gowns attest to their innocence, a popular convention among child portraiture.
Prior to the 18th century, childhood was rarely thought of as a distinct phase of life; children were considered adults in miniature, and their education and introduction to society were conducted as such. Enlightenment philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, however, proposed that childhood was a separate and important phase of development in which children should be allowed to learn by expressing their natural and childlike tendencies, free from the strictures of adult society. In this portrait Gainsborough emphasizes these characteristics by showing the blissful children in a peaceful, natural setting.
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