MADRID.- The fact that the Montserrat Museum could present a monographic exhibition, of great artistic interest, titled “Infants”, indicate that it’s holdings are important and that the theme of children had great resonance in Catalonian art during the 19th and 20th centuries.

The gallery of children that we see in this exhibit shows a wide array of aspects and experiences. Most of the time we see a child in a family setting, which is the most vital medium, protected by parents and other members of the family. It is very common for a painter to draw his own family, sometimes in a liberal way, when the painter does not have a compromise with a client and at other times, he does the contray makes his family part of a great “salón” portrait. There are many painters that draw their children, the psychology of which they know very well and that know how to portray them with grace.

There are many commissioned portraits, in which the author is compromised to guess the enigma of the feeling that a child hides and to make an artistic rendering. But in no way, can these commissioned works of art be inferior to the others.

There are works of art where the protagonist is a child who is painted in a certain situation: the altar boy made by Picasso, a working boy or girl by Nonell and Joan Llimona, etc.

Curiously the children we see seldom smile or play. When they are in front of the painter they are calm and quiet. They are then captured in a state of tranquility, sadness, fear, anxiety and surprise. Each child hides a mystery that each artist captures and interprets according to his own sensibility.