FROM 20 MAR to 5 SEP '27 | Kunsthal Rotterdam will present Children of Their Time from 20 March to 5 September 2027, bringing together five centuries of European art to examine how children have been portrayed and understood. From symbols of power and wealth to intimate scenes of family life, the exhibition traces both changing ideas about childhood and the surprising continuities that remain.
Five centuries of childhood in art
Children have appeared in European art for centuries, but the meaning behind their portraits has shifted considerably. In Children of Their Time, a working title for the exhibition, Kunsthal Rotterdam brings together works showing children as symbols of status, expressions of compassion and subjects of everyday family life.
By placing works from different periods alongside one another, the exhibition asks what these images reveal about the societies that produced them. A carefully staged portrait might communicate a family's wealth or social position, while another work may capture a much more personal moment between parent and child.
The exhibition spans roughly five centuries, allowing visitors to see how ideas about childhood have developed over time while also recognising experiences that remain familiar today.
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Painting, photography, sculpture and video
Rather than limiting the story to portrait painting, Kunsthal will bring together a broad range of media. The exhibition includes painting, photography, sculpture and video, creating connections between historic images and contemporary interpretations of childhood.
Among the artists represented are Rineke Dijkstra, Titian, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Jan Steen, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Gerard van Honthorst, Marlene Dumas, Charley Toorop, Michaël Borremans, Natasja Kensmil, Marwan Magroun and Melanie Bonajo.
That range gives the exhibition room to move between very different artistic traditions. A seventeenth-century portrait of a carefully dressed child can sit in conversation with a contemporary photograph or video, revealing how much the visual language around childhood has changed.
Childhood as status and identity
Historically, portraits of children often carried messages that went well beyond the child themselves. Clothing, pose, surroundings and family connections could signal wealth, inheritance or social position.
Other works approach childhood from a more emotional perspective, focusing on vulnerability, affection or the everyday realities of growing up. Together, these different representations show how children have been used to express wider ideas about family, identity and society.
The exhibition does not present childhood as one fixed experience. Instead, it highlights how expectations and images of children have changed across generations, while certain themes, including family relationships, play and protection, continue to reappear.
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A collaboration with Bucerius Forum Hamburg
Children of Their Time is being created in collaboration with Bucerius Forum Hamburg.
The Rotterdam presentation will take place in HALL 1 at Kunsthal Rotterdam from 20 March to 5 September 2027. The title is currently listed as a working title, so this may still change before the exhibition opens.
