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While many of her contemporaries grappled with the depiction of youth, this was an area in which Beale evidently excelled and for which she became renowned. This portrait of an unknown boy, probably dating from the 1680s, demonstrates the combination of sensitivity and formality that is characteristic of her child portraiture.
Children posed a problem for portraitists in the seventeenth century, as capturing their likenesses required a dichotomous approach. On the one hand, it was important to portray their smaller and more delicate features and fresher skin tones – nuances easily overlooked – but on the other there was the issue of formality. Parents generally wanted to emphasise the maturity of their children, requiring more grown-up expressions and dress. Even artists of exceptional talent encountered difficulties harmonizing the two, leading to portraits characterized by peculiar proportions, in which children were endowed with uncanny, adult-like features. Beale, however, managed this fusion with skill and empathy, and painted some of the...
While many of her contemporaries grappled with the depiction of youth, this was an area in which Beale evidently excelled and for which she became renowned. This portrait of an unknown boy, probably dating from the 1680s, demonstrates the combination of sensitivity and formality that is characteristic of her child portraiture.
Children posed a problem for portraitists in the seventeenth century, as capturing their likenesses required a dichotomous approach. On the one hand, it was important to portray their smaller and more delicate features and fresher skin tones – nuances easily overlooked – but on the other there was the issue of formality. Parents generally wanted to emphasise the maturity of their children, requiring more grown-up expressions and dress. Even artists of exceptional talent encountered difficulties harmonizing the two, leading to portraits characterized by peculiar proportions, in which children were endowed with uncanny, adult-like features. Beale, however, managed this fusion with skill and empathy, and painted some of the period’s most tender and refined portraits of young sitters.
