The Le Nain Brothers,
'A Woman and Five Children', 1642.
London, The National Gallery.

Family Fortunes: Painting the Family

11 July - 30 Sept 2001
Sunley Room

Supported by the Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation

Families are familiar, but they are also complicated. The word 'family' can mean different things at different times to different people. It can be used to describe a lineage or line of descent, a group of living relatives or, perhaps most commonly today, a parent or parents and children living together - the so-called 'nuclear family'.

This exhibition, drawn primarily from the National Gallery collection, brought together family portraits and scenes of family life dating from the 16th to the 20th centuries. In that time, changes in society and shifting attitudes towards marriage, illegitimacy, inheritance and the upbringing and education of children have all affected the family's structure and function, and these changes are often evident in its portrayal. But while the paintings may suggest differing views of the family, this exhibition was not intended primarily as social history; rather it focused on the manner in which artists have responded to the particular problems of depicting families.

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