Drawing in Childhood and Childhood in Painting

Abstract

The article deals with children’s drawings considering them as a source of inspiration for artists. The study employs an interdisciplinary approach, focusing on characteristics of children’s drawings and their potential to contribute to professional artistic creativity from the viewpoints of art history and psychology. The position that children’s drawings might influence many artists is based on two sources. First, several studies provided by art historians address this impact. Second, documented oral and written testimonies of the artists themselves prove this influence. It is commonly accepted among art critics that children’s drawings may often serve as a reference in various artistic fields. However, this perspective tends to rely on an overly generalized and simplified, thus inaccurate, understanding of the nature of children’s drawings.

Artists frequently express opinions about their own work and often claim children’s drawings as a source of inspiration, emphasising the importance of maintaining a childlike perception of the world. Nevertheless, such statements should be taken with some skepticism. Artists’ remarks on this subject tend to be subjective and emotional, reflecting the nature of artistic creation and self-description, rather than providing reliable material for scientific analysis.

The author concludes that specific features of children’s drawings indicate that they cannot directly serve as source material for adult artists’ creativity. Children’s drawings are based on egocentric thinking inherent to children but alien to adults. Moreover, children’s drawings exhibit qualities absent in professional artworks. Therefore, the influence of children’s drawings on adult artists should be considered as distant and indirect.

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