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Children at a Church Door

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet is known chiefly for his lithographs – he produced around 2,000 of them – but he also worked in other media, including oil sketches such as this one. Children often appear in his pictures, their spontaneous behaviour gently mocking social customs and pretensions. In this small painting we see a group of young children being directed into a church by several clergymen dressed in black. The priest in the foreground has a sign pinned to his back that reads ‘Hane’ – a childish misspelling of ‘âne’ (ass). Charlet provides a generalised impression of most of the children, but he singles out a few, most notably the boy on the right, who defiantly faces us with his arms firmly crossed as he smokes a clay pipe.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

Children at a Church Door

Date

about 1817-45

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 24.1 x W 33 cm

Accession number

NG4140

Acquisition method

Presented by Sir Robert and Lady Witt to the Tate Gallery through The Art Fund, 1926; transferred, 1956

Work type

Painting

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Normally on display at

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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