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Picturing the Word: A
Literacy Odyssey in Paintings of Children, Youth and Families
Sarah Dowhower
Like a kid
in a candy shop, I am awed and excited to publish in the new American Reading
Forum Online Yearbook. Awed in the sense
that just a few years ago, this fantastic electronic medium for scholarship was
not available—in fact, digital imagery (critical to my chapter) was in its
infancy. Excited in the sense that after
two years of having had no vehicle for publishing my ARF sessions (1999 and
2000), I now can share my work—in fact, not just with my colleagues, but the
whole world!
Indeed,
publishing a hard copy of research on the representation of literacy in great
paintings presented impossible hurdles for a small professional organization
like the American Reading Forum. Not to
mention the painting copyrights, permission requests and the cost involved, the
expense of color photos would have been prohibitive. Indeed, black and white reproductions of
paintings just do not carry the same visual impact (just compare the difference
between Figures 1 and 2 below).
Thanks to
the innovative online-format and the Yearbook’s enterprising editors, you can
savor the magic of magnificent multi-colored masterpieces and the stories they
tell about reading and writing through the ages. To learn more about the artist or to view a
painting in all its glory, click on the URL below the image. If you really get hooked on literacy paintings,
explore my three favorite internet art databases listed after the references. Enjoy!
__________________________
This is a journey for literacy lovers and
art aficionados, an odyssey of reading and writing across centuries and
continents as seen through painters’ eyes.
The paper explores the phenomena of literacy in Western paintings;
presenting famous and lesser-known paintings from antiquity to contemporary
times whose subjects are children, adolescents and families engaged in reading
and writing with various literacy artifacts (e.g. scrolls, books, pens, desks,
etc.). By definition, works with these
elements are referred to as “Literacy Paintings.”
Like other forms of art, paintings tell
stories about their time; literacy paintings tell about the advent and
perpetuation of literacy over time and give us indications of the value and
importance of reading and writing in peoples’ lives. Portraits of children and families in
particular tell about the young peoples’ status within the society as well as
narrate the history of literacy theories, diversity of practices and evolution
of objects used for reading and writing.
As one delves into the stories and the
historical perspective captured in the paintings, it is apparent that being
able to read and write symbolized many different things for children, youth and
families through the ages. From the
tablets and scrolls of the Greeks and Romans, to hand-made books of the
medieval monks, to the printing press of the 1400s, to the computers and letter
graphics of the 20-21st centuries, artists have given a plethora of
meanings to literacy acts and artifacts.
As evident in the following survey of paintings of children and
families, just holding a book, scroll or pen in a portrait can symbolize a path
to salvation, God’s word, wisdom, authorship, wealth and status, melancholy,
intellectualism, scholarship, literacy education, increasing mass literacy,
leisure or recreation, even parental bonding.
As you view the paintings, be
sure to drink in their beauty and artistry.
For this is both a journey
and an excursion celebrating literacy and art.
Look long enough and each one will work its magic on you.
(Sister Wendy Beckett, 1999,
p. 5)
Portraits of Children and Youth Reading and
Writing
The paper is divided into two main sections: (a) individual portraits
of children and youth reading and writing; and (b) paintings of family
literacy, i.e., parents and grandparents reading with their progeny. The first part chronologically traces
literacy paintings of young children and adolescents through four time periods
from Classical to the present day.
Greco-Roman Period: Roots of Language and Child
Development
The earliest Western paintings of the
young engaged in reading and writing are from antiquity. Indeed, both the academic study of language
and linguistics as well as childhood development and education find their roots
in Greek philosophers like Plato (427-347 BCE) and Aristotle (394-322
BCE). Plato gave us valuable insights
into language (e.g., vowels, consonants, word accent) and Aristotle (Plato’s
student) was often regarded as the founder of classical European grammar
(Crane, Yeager, & Whitman, 1981).
Both believed in elementary education and that a child’s education
(basically literacy and math) should start before age 6.
In addition, the Greek
Hellenistic period gave us the idea of youth or adolescence as a specific stage
of development. Thus, “ephebe” (one who
has passed puberty) occupied a recognized place in the social structure, at
least of the upper social class of the Greeks (Esman, 1990, p. 5). For young males, military training or
involvement in the education at the Academy were options. Plato tells us that youth at the Academy
“participated along with adults and perhaps some younger adolescents in the
learned discussions” (p. 5). From what
is known of Greek history, these discussions must have involved conversational
discourse as well as vocalized versions of different texts by readers.
Early evidence of young
males’ status as “ephebe” and the importance of being able to read and write
can be found in scenes painted on vases and cups of that period (Figures 1
and 2).
Figure 1: Boy Reading, related to the
school of Douris. C. 470 BCE. Red
Figured lekythos, ARV(2) 452. Private
Collection of Henri Seyrig,
On the red-figured
lekythos (used for perfumed oil, c. 470 BCE), a seated youth is holding an
unfurled roll from which (we suppose) he is reading (Figure 1). A writing case is hanging in the upper
right. The actual text written on the
open roll is the beginning of a hymn to Hermes
(Immerwahr, 1964, in Wiesner, 2002), the Greek name for Mercury (whom by
the way, also was often pictured as a youth).
The importance of the roll (rotulus),
the ancient form of the book, cannot be understated. The roll made possible the spread of literacy
from its origins in Egypt through the Greco-Roman worlds.
The young man on the
vase might actually be reading silently, a rare but documented practice among
Greeks about this time. (In fact, some
experts like Svenbro (1999) suggest that the Greeks invented silent
reading.) On the other hand, the youth
may be reading aloud to an audience, by far the most common literary practice
throughout the Greco-Roman worlds.
Seemingly, the boy is looking ahead at a companion—indicating that this
may well be an expressive oral production within a social gathering.
In Figure 2, a young
boy, seated on a bench, is using a wax tablet that looks amazingly like a
laptop computer!
Figure 2: Boy Writing by Eucharides
Painter Orvieto. Etruria. C. 480
BCE. Attic Red Figure Kylix, H. 7.4; L.
27.5; Dia. 21.2 cm. University of
That laptop is actually a 5-leaf folding wax
tablet, typically used by schoolboys learning to write in that time (University
of Pennsylvania Museum, 2003). With a
stylus in hand, the youth is intently involved in composing. He probably is murmuring or speaking aloud as
he writes, for scholars believe that the purpose of writing in Greek times was
“to produce the sound, not to represent it” (Svenbro, 1999, pp. 62-63), so
composing was usually oral.
Around the time these
youths were depicted, the first methods of Western literacy education were
taking shape—some of which are still used today, 2000+ years later. The study of the structure of language and
usage of words (contemporary linguistics) began in the 5th -4th
centuries BCE in Athens and peaked with the writing of the first systematic and
comprehensive grammar in the Western tradition by Dionysius Thrax (c. 100 BCE)
in Alexandria (Connell, 1987, p. 201).
The text basically gave the theory and precepts for “organizing the
expressive qualities of the voice in the act of reading” (Cavallo &
Chartier, 1999, p. 12).
This literacy theory of
oral production evolving from the Hellenistic age is still very current in the
thinking of literacy experts. The
expressive qualities of reading aloud (including the inflection, rhythm and
gesturing) play a critical role in understanding (for both the reader and the listener);
and thus, the acceptable interpretation of the author’s intended meaning.
The Roman Empire inherited many of Greek
literacy traditions. As written culture
spread, however, a broader “reading public” emerged (Cavallo, 1999, p. 69)--one
with public and private libraries and a wider circulation of reading materials
in part due to a new form of book invented by the Romans called the codex (2nd
to 3rd century CE).
Education (predominantly literacy) was extending to lower classes and in
particular to women and children.
Recreational reading or free reading not related to professional
purposes became popular.
Frescos and graffiti in the ruins of
Pompeii, Italy, hint at this more complex literate public comprised of an
ever-widening population of readers and writers with increasing reasons for
engaging in some form of literacy pursuits.
Wall paintings, as well as texts, including poems, jokes, and
obscenities, were preserved with many others in 79 CE, by a blanket of the
volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius.
I
am amazed, o wall, that you have not collapsed and fallen,
since
you must bear the tedious stupidities of so many scrawlers.
(Pompeii
graffiti in Shelton, 1998)
In particular, two Roman Pompeii frescos
picture a young boy and adolescent girl engaged in reading and writing,
respectively. The first is of a child
reading a scroll aloud—a detail of a fresco in the Villa of Mysteries (Figure
3). This portrayal is perhaps the
earliest extant depiction of a child reader.
Figure
3: Child reading a scroll (79 CE). A detail from the Villa of Mysteries
Paintings, Fresco at
The extensive villa wall painting is
believed to be a story of the secret initiation rites of privileged girls into
wifehood. In this detail, the
officiating priestess is holding a scroll in her left hand and stylus in her
right, perhaps preparing to add the initiate’s name to the list. The bride on the left is possibly listening
to the naked boy child read the rules of the rite passage from the roll he
holds open with both hands.
The other Pompeii painting (Figure 4) is of a young
Roman girl writing—or pensively composing in her head, ready to write on her
wax tablet with her stylus. The instrument
had a pointed side for writing and a flat side for erasing.
Figure 4: Portrait of a young
writer. Detail of a wall painting from
Pompeii. C. 79 CE. Diameter 37 cm. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples. Courtesy of Ministero per I Beni e le
Attivitá Culturali,
By the age of seven Roman boys attended school;
young girls, however, got their instruction at home. Some authorities believe Roman girls were
educated to a greater degree than those in Greece; and that the more education
Roman girls had, the higher their status at maturity when they were
married—usually around 13-14 years of age (Avrin, 1991). The artifacts in the painting lead us to
believe that this young lady could both read and write. However, like Roman males, she was probably
taught writing (penmanship) separately before she learned to read—a
practice quite different from today’s approach to literacy education. If training stopped early, the student may
have been able to write, but not to read.
Also, like writing, reading was learned in a part-to-whole fashion
called the Alphabet Method. Learners
first recognized and named the letters and then word parts and finally whole
words and sentences.
The wax tablet with four wooden panels,
held so prominently by the young Roman girl, was the forerunner of the book, as
we know it today. The tablet with
multiple writing surfaces attached together evolved into the “codex,” i.e.
leaves of separate sheets of vellum made from animal skins secured between two
boards (Harthan, 1981). The codex slowly
began replacing the scroll by the end of the 1st or the beginning of
the 2nd century CE, although they were used simultaneously for
several centuries.
Early paintings of codices decorated the
walls of underground Christian cemeteries, most notably the catacombs of Rome. While these frescos reflected the artistic
traditions of the Roman Empire and Greek origins, they also were the true
beginnings of Christian art (Katz, 2001).
Since the early days of the codex were closely tied with the rise of
Christianity and adolescence had been an acknowledged part of the Greco-Roman
social structure, it seems no coincidence that in one of the earliest
depictions of a book (in the Saints Peter and Marcellinus Catacombs, Figure 5),
it is being held by a Roman youth.
Image currently
unavailable.
Figure 5: Youth holding a codex. C. 2nd century. Wall painting from the Catacomb of Saints
Peter and Marcellinus,
Medieval to Early Renaissance: Rare Painting Examples
After the fall of the
Unfortunately, during the early middle
ages, literacy passed into the private and exclusive possession of the clergy
and scribes working within the domains of both church and government (Venezky,
1991, p. 46). In the late middle ages
and early Renaissance, in addition to the clergy, literacy also became the
special privilege of the aristocracy and after the 13th century, the
upper bourgeoisie (Manguel, 1996, p. 71).
Early Portraits of
Children. Together then, children and literacy had
little societal value for the lay public after the fall of the
Not surprising, however,
is that when the first depictions of young children engaged with text did
appear in the early Renaissance, the images were religious or revisits of
classical themes. Literacy portraits of
children were first produced in the 1400s—the earliest subjects were Mary and
Christ reading (see Figures 22 and 23), and famous Romans such as the child in
Figure 6 below.
Figure 6:
Vincenzo Foppa. Young
In 1464, the early Renaissance
artist Foppa (1428-1515) painted the Roman’s greatest orator and man of
letters, Cicero (106-43 BCE) as a schoolboy totally absorbed in the small book
he is reading. One hand on his leg, he
is catching the light from the window as he tilts his head in almost adult-like
concentration. Olmert (1992) suggests
that in this painting “young Cicero embodies the essence of the Renaissance
love of learning” (p. 20). In the anachronistic
rendering, Foppa places Cicero in a contemporary setting, holding a codex (not
a roll) and surrounded with precious manuscripts inhabiting both shelves and
desk. Typical of an Italian
intellectual’s study of the mid-1400s were angular and plain reading bench
seats and built-in book cupboards with little ornamentation (Riley, 1980 p. 25)
much like those in Figure 6.
By the 1500s,
the aristocracy were commissioning portraits of their children. One such painting (Figure 7) was the first
son of Cosimo I de’ Medici and Eleonora di Toledo, Francesco (1541-1587). The boy is approximately 10 years old and
holds a letter, probably to symbolize his intelligence, education and ability
to read and write. Agnolo Bronzino
(1503-1572) was a Florentine mannerist who was appointed court painter to the
Medici about the time Francesco was born.
Consequently, he executed many portraits of the family and court as well
as religious and allegorical subjects.
Figure 7:
Agnolo Bronzino. Portrait of Francesco I de’ Medici.
1551. Tempera on wood, 58.5 x 41.5 cm.
Galleria degli Uffizi,
Sometimes small children were painted as angels
or special messengers with scrolls or books.
For example, in the early 1500s, Michelanglo (1475-1564) painted little
boys, called Putti, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, some with scrolls or
books in their hands. Figure 8 shows the
Delphic Sibyl consulting her prophetic scroll as a little naked boy behind her
holds a tome and another seems to be reading it with his right arm and hand
raised to turn the page.
Figure 8: Michelangelo. Putti assisting the Delphic Sibyl. 1512.
Sistine Chapel, Rome. Courtesy of
Christus Rex, Inc. Image Source: http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sistine/18-Prophets.html
Putto (Putti plural) originating in Greek and
Roman antiquity were small boys or infants-- sometimes winged-- that were found
in the early Roman frescos and in catacombs and then adopted in Renaissance and
Baroque art. They signified either heavenly
inspirations as in Figure 8 or harbingers of profane love (Hall, 1979) as the
naked boy of Pompeii in Figure 3.
Early Paintings of Adolescents. Like those of children, secular portraits of aristocratic and upper class adolescents (mostly male) began appearing in the mid-1400s. However, unlike small children, identifying paintings of adolescents in this time period presents somewhat of a challenge. Since they were pictured as fully-grown, it is often hard to distinguish youths from 21-year-olds adults. By the 16th century, the portrait genre of “young men” (actually teenagers to our eyes) became popular. Painters, such as Bellini and Botticelli, completed many portraits of youths--largely devoid of any literacy reference. A few artists such as Christus, Lotto, and Memling painted occasional portraits of adolescents with books that were typically religious in nature.
In 1475, Hans Memling (1438-1494) painted one of the earliest portraits of an adolescent reading. Memling’s anonymous youth (Figure 9) is depicted in a common pose of meditation and with his hands clasped in prayer over an open book. He is looking up from his devotional text, most likely a Book of Hours which was very popular among European laity by the middle of the 15th century for personal daily religious prayers and contemplation. Memling must have been fond of this type of portrait for he painted a young man in a similar pose in 1487 (i.e., Nieuwenhove diptych).
Figure
9: Hans Memling. Young Man at Prayer.
C.1475. Oak wood, 38,7 x 25.4
cm. National Gallery,
By the mid-16th
century portraits of aristocratic and upper class girls with books in their
hands came into vogue. Like those of
earlier young males, there was a pious aspect to the paintings. As in Figure 10, a prayer book or Bible was
included to send the message that reading God’s Word would bring salvation--and
of course, purity.
Click on the
URL below to view painting.
Figure 10: Agnolo Bronzino. Portrait of a Young Girl with a Prayer Book. Mid 1500. Galleria Delgli Uffizi,
Florence. Image Source: http://sunsite.dk/cgfa/bronzino/p-bronzino16.htm
1600 to 1700s: Young Students and
Scholars
The 17th
to late 18th centuries marked major changes in the upward mobility
of the middle class, child and adolescent development theory and literacy
expansion. Because of factors such as
industrialization and increased educational opportunities, childhood as well as
adolescence emerged as unique developmental periods. In increasing numbers, the bourgeoisie
including tradesmen, craftsmen and skilled workers joined the literate
class. Finally, as Whittman (1999)
suggests, a major revolution in reading took place by the late 18th
century—one of an expanding written culture and increased access to print. Significantly, there was a movement from the
repeated reading of a limited corpus of religious texts (called intensive
reading) to the avid devouring of large number and variety of print materials
(called extensive reading).
As a result,
portraits of children/youth of this period reflected these cultural
shifts. Although still rare, the
portraits of children and adolescents that did include literacy references,
moved from religious to more secular themes—one of the most popular was “the bourgeoisie youth as scholar.”
One famous
artist known for painting “the soul of the old” also captured the essence of
youth. Rembrandt’s (1609-1669) son, Titus van Rijn (1641-1669)
sat for no less than seven different portraits as an adolescent--several
specifically as a reader/writer. Titus
was one of four children born to Rembrandt and his first wife, Saskia. Only Titus reached adulthood. In Figures 11 and 12, Titus is 14 and 15
years of age, respectively.
Figure 11:
Rembrandt. Titus at his Desk. 1655. Oil on canvas, 77 x 63 cm. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen,
Rotterdam. Courtesy of Web Gallery of
Art. Image Source: http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/r/rembran/painting/portrai1/titus1.html
Figure 12:
Rembrandt. Titus, the Artist’s Son,
In both
portraits, Titus is shown absorbed in literacy.
With pen in his right hand and pencil case hanging from his left over
the front of the desk (Figure 11), he stares ahead as if contemplating what to
write next. Yet there is a hint of
melancholy in his expression. In Figure
12, however, Titus has an air of jaunty confidence as he holds the book boldly
out in front of him and reads. Titus would
not be the first teenager (or adult) to find reading much easier than writing!
Several years
before Rembrandt gave us pictures of his son, two other Dutch artists, Jan
Davidsz De Heem (1628) and Pieter Codde (1630) painted several students in
melancholy straits. Not without humor,
Codde (1599-1678) depicted a pensive, dejected youth faced with the thought of
studying (Figure 13).
Figure 13:
Pieter Codde. A young student at his desk: Melancholy. C. 1630-1633. Oil on panel, 46 x 34 cm. Musee Des Beaux-Arts,
In barren surroundings with only a large
desk and books, the young scholar (if we want to dignify him with that title)
is leaning back in the chair with his head propped up by his hand looking
rather glum. His lace collar is loose
and jacket unbuttoned. The pipe in his
hand and the expression on his face symbolize melancholy which could mean
either a gloomy disposition, or perhaps, intellectual musing. Codde’s painting is a secularization of
paintings of Melancholy, daughter of Saturn, a theme popular in the late
medieval and Renaissance periods (i.e. Durer’s Melencolia, 1514) and later
Classicism (i.e., Domenico Feti’s Allegory of Melancholy, c. 1621). This disposition (one of the Four
Temperaments) leads either to depressive inactivity or introspective
intellectual accomplishments. Ah, the
trials of a young student!
Over 100 years later, Perronneau (1713-1783), a French
artist, painted his younger brother as a frail, pale, unsure student with his
fingers holding a place in an open book.
He has a faraway look as if he is trying to understand or digest some
difficult passage.
Click on the URL
below to see painting.
Figure 14:
Jean-Baptiste Perronneau. Portrait of a Boy with a Book. 1745-6.
Hermitage,
As may be
expected, the few children/youth portrayed as readers in the 1600-1700s were
mostly male; although toward the end of the 18th century,
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), known for his beautiful female portraits in
Rococo style, painted several haunting pictures of adolescent girls absorbed in
books. Figure 15 is one example.
Figure 15:
Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Young Scholar. 1775-78.
Oil on canvas, 45 x 38 cm.
The young scholar
is fiercely vulnerable as she looks up from the text she is studying. Her look is one of concentration mixed with
awe; as if what she has just read moved her profoundly. Fragonard painted in Rousseau’s time. If Rousseau (1712-1778) did not “invent” adolescence,
he certainly was the first to identify the stage of development in the West
(Esman, 1990, p. 9). Fragonard’s
portraits may well have reflected the growing acknowledgement of this
pre-adulthood period as well as the purity and goodness of young people such as
this girl.
1800 to 1900s: Mass Literacy and Leisure Reading
The 19th
and 20th centuries brought many changes in the general public’s
ability to read and write. Lyons (1999)
argues that by the end of the 19th century, the “reading public” of
the Western world achieved mass literacy; and Venezky (1991), that literacy in
the 20th century was “the near-universal tool of the masses,
utilizable within every facet of daily life” (p. 46). As a result of increased education and
industrialization in the 1800s-1900s, women, children and the working class
joined the “literacy club” (term attributed to Frank Smith, 1988) on a large
scale.
Joining
the Literacy Club. Although he may
not have realized it, one of the greatest figurative artists of all times,
French William Bouguereau (1825-1905), captured this very idea in a painting
of another young female student (Figure
16), almost a hundred years after Fragonard’s Young Scholar (Figure 15).
Figure 16: William Bouguereau. The
Difficult Lesson (La leÁon difficule).
1884. Oil on canvas, 97.8 x 66 cm.
Private Collection. Courtesy of
Seated on a
stark dirty step, this working class child is shown “joining the literacy
club”, albeit with some trial.
Distinctive are the bare feet, the bare walls, the simple dress and the
solemn look. Her finger is poised at a
word in the open book as she looks up, as if to say, “This is not easy.”
Bouguereau
loved to paint children! In fact,
Bouguereau included hundreds of them in his over 800 completed historical,
biblical, mythological and contemporary works.
Amazingly, many of these
images (putti, nymphs, biblical infants
and contemporary children) were life-size portraits, as the example above. Ross (2003) believes that the artist
“captured the soul of youth,” and deliberately chose lower classes subjects to
underscore the rights of man and the value of all life. Of the almost 200 Bouguereau paintings
catalogued in The Art Renewal Center’s (2003) noteworthy collection of images,
about a third are of contemporary working class children and youth. Indeed, Bouguereau’s models were often from
families of farmers, fisherman and even his own servants.
Literate
Young Girls: Reading for Pleasure.
During the 1800s “reading for enjoyment” was an evolving literacy
practice, as written materials of all kinds (e.g. magazines, newspapers, and
cheap fiction) became increasingly available.
Importantly, this period was a hallmark for specific books targeted for
young people. The birth of modern
children’s literature as we know it today took place; books, poems and magazines written
specifically for children/youth brought humor, adventure, fantasy and realistic
fiction into their lives. Classics still
popular today were published, including Moore’s The Night Before Christmas (1823); Anderson’s Fairy Tales (translated
in1846); Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland
(1865), considered the first English children’s masterpiece; Alcott’s Little Women (1868); Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876);
Collodi’s Pinocchio (1891); and
Kipling’s The Jungle Books
(1894).
Thus,
it seems no coincidence that from the mid-to-late 1800s, artists began painting
numerous portraits of young girls reading novels. Unlike the portraits of the 16th
to 18th centuries, these paintings suggested not so much religious
or scholarly intent, but instead that of reading for enjoyment, particularly
fiction and picture storybooks.
Lord Frederick
Leighton (1830-1896) was a life-long bachelor and the first academic English
painter/sculptor to be made a Lord by the British Crown. Like Fragonard a century before him, Leighton
(a neo-classicist) loved to paint beautiful innocent and evocative young
females in rich colors and elegant lighting.
Two of his paintings (Maid with
the Golden Hair, 1895, and Figure 17 below) are memorable in that they show
adolescents (in lush golden tones) so totally immersed in reading that one can
almost feel the intensity of their concentration.
Figure 17: Lord Frederick Leighton. Study:
At a Reading Desk. 1877. Oil on canvas, 63.2 x 65.1 cm. Sudley House, Mossley Hill,
This eloquently dressed miss is sitting
cross-legged on the floor with a bit of bare toe peeking out from under her
dress. With arms crossed she is bending
over a unique x-shaped portable reading desk.
The lighting is such that the right side of the open book is
illuminated.
Whereas Leighton painted
adolescents reading in boldly rich tones, French impressionist Pierre-Auguste
Renior (1841-1919) painted younger girls.
Renior was obviously intrigued with children reading because he painted
at least seven portraits of gloriously coiffured and be-decked little girls
leisurely pouring over open books. A
superb example is Figure 18 below.
Figure 18:
Pierre Auguste Renior. A Girl Reading (La Lecture). 1890.
Completely lost in
her book, “the girl in red” has her head
slightly tilted and mouth partially open as if she were reading aloud-- or in
utter awe. In a blur of vibrant reds and
oranges, she is the epitome of what Walther (2000, p. 504) calls Renior’s
desire to paint only the serene, the innocent and the beautiful.
When I was a ten-year-old
and used to kiss the dust jacket pictures of
authors
as if
they were icons, it used to amaze me
that these remote people could provoke me to
love.
(Erica Jong)
Multiple
Children, Multiple Genres. An emerging
motif of the 20th century was the depiction of multiple children
engaged in literary pursuits together with different types of genres, including
picture books, comics and big books.
The three portraits that follow are a sampling of the numerous works
along these lines.
Picture books
as we know them today originated in England around the turn of the century; and
up through the 1920s, most of them were published there (Cullinan & Galda,
1998, p. 28). Figure 19 is a British
narrative painting by Victorian artist Charles Haigh-Wood (1874-1904) about one
such storybook.
Figure 19:
Charles Haigh-Wood. Peace Offering. Before
1927. Private Collection. Courtesy of Modernart Editions, copyright
1992.
Image Source: http://www.barewalls.com/product/artwork.exe?ItemID=60994&zoom=1&njs=1
This enchanting
picture by the light of a fire tells a story of an interchange between a boy
and girl, possibly sister and brother.
They appear to have had an argument over and maybe even a tussle as to
who would read a children’s picture
book. The object of concern is lying on
the floor with several pages in tatters.
The boy is offering the sad-faced girl some coins (or something?) as
recompense for this destruction of a much loved book. (As an interesting literary aside, the
daughter of Charles Haigh-Wood had an intense and volatile marriage to TS
Eliot.)
At 22 years of
age, British Pop Artist Peter Blake (1932-) completed a picture of his sister
and himself (Figure 20) during his studies at the Royal College of Art.
Figure 20: Peter Blake. Children
Reading Comics. 1954.
Blake and his
sibling (with a patch over her eye) are sitting outside reading comics from a
newspaper whose print is almost readable.
Reproducing facsimiles of pages was somewhat radical at the time. As a Pop Artist, Blake painted everyday
objects and familiar subjects and often his pictures were autobiographical,
this one transcribed from an old family photo (Livingston, 1990).
Moving into the
late 20th century, Brenda Joysmith (1952-) has painted a uniquely
contemporary scene of “Shared Literacy” entitled Reading from All Sides
(Figure 21).
Figure 21:
Brenda Joysmith. Reading from All Sides.
1988. Private Collection. Courtesy of Joysmith Gallery and Studio,
Huddled around the edges of a big book
(stories with enlarged text and illustrations), five little girls are
enthusiastically reading aloud together.
This activity is called a “Shared Book Experience.” It is a strategy based on the theory that
learning to read is a social experience and that adults and other children can
provide that support in a group setting (Holdaway, 1979). A teacher or parent reads a book aloud numerous
times with the children, encouraging them to read along in unison, as they are
able. After many repeated readings, the
children can read the big book independently.
Brenda Joysmith is a contemporary
pastel artist who was trained at the Chicago Institute of Art. Her goal is the positive depiction of
everyday black life scenes—“which are as common as sunshine” (Joysmith,
2002). Literacy activities with other
children and adults are important themes in many of her paintings, including Reading and Friendship (1990), Bible
Study (1994), Storyteller (1990);
as well as Bedtime Story (1991) and Ritual
of Good Night (2001) (see Figures 35 & 36) which are wonderful examples of “Family
Literacy,” the next major section of this survey.
Family
Literacy Paintings
Children are made readers on the laps of their
parents.
(Emilie Buchwald, speech, 1994)
“Family Literacy” became a hot topic in
the educational world at the beginning of the 1990s and still is an important
area of study today. Family literacy involves
activities with print involving parents, children and grandchildren both in and
outside of the home. When two or more
generations are involved, family literacy is often termed “intergenerational”
or “multigenerational” literacy.
Experts have long acknowledged that
“parents are children’s first teachers;” that “literacy begins at home;” and
that as Huey claimed in 1908, “it all begins with parents reading to children”
(p. 103). It is doubtful that painters
over the centuries knew or understood the significance of what parents did to
help their children learn language and literacy; but they certainly portrayed
the event as an important cultural phenomenon in numerous paintings for nearly
600 years.
This concluding section is a survey of
paintings from the early Renaissance to the 20th century of family
literacy in action. Works where parents,
grandparents and children are interacting with print cluster around three
themes: (a) religious; (b) educational; and (c) multigenerational oral reading.
Christian
Portrayals of Family Literacy
Visual arts served many functions within the
church, not the least of which was its use in teaching Bible stories to the
young and the illiterate. Art also
became a means of honoring the saints, and a tool for recalling points in the
salvation story during periods of private and collective prayer…. To these functions—instruction, veneration,
and remembrance—we add the role of adornment.
What enriched God’s house enhanced his glory, providing an appropriate
environment in which to encounter the divine.
(Katz, 2001, pp. 29-30)
Thus in the Christian interpretation,
religious art was fertile ground for helping the children and illiterate
adults “read” the Word of God, remember
the Bible stories, find the road to salvation, inspire devotion and feel close
to that which is holy and divine.
Madonna art was especially powerful in these respects. What follows are three major Marian art themes
where literacy is particularly significant.
Mary and Christ Enthroned. Interestingly, like the early Christian depictions of books (Figure 5), the first portraits showing a Biblical family unit were found in the Roman catacombs –i.e., Mary with infant Jesus in her lap (early 3rd century CE, Catacomb of Priscilla). Given that Christianity is based on God’s Word and His Word appears in the form of a book, it is not surprising that this early image of Christ in Mary’s lap evolved over time into the first occurrence in Western paint