The Half Hidden

During the 1600's and 1700's it was fashionable to paint family portraits. These paintings typically feature the man and his wife at his home, surrounded by their children. The children in the paintings are frequently portrayed as small and serious adults. Like their parents, the children stare out of the paintings on the viewer. But we also see other children in the picture. Children who have turned their backs on us. Children who are turned away, half hidden, or have their faces and bodies obscured by the other children, a table, or something similar. Infant mortality was high and all members of the family were portrayed in the paintings. Both those who were living and those who were not living. These are the dead children. This story is in that retrospect such a painting. This is the story of those who could live and those who did not live. The half hidden. The ones that turn away. Those who you barely see.