Drawing on Childhood

Drawing on Childhood brings together the work of major illustrators from the eighteenth-century to the present day, who have created powerful images of characters in fiction who are orphaned, adopted, fostered or found. The exhibition displays original drawings, first editions and special illustrated editions and considers how illustrators of different generations have chosen key moments in stories from European folklore and fiction to bring these child heroes to life.

Major illustrators and artists whose work is on display include Quentin Blake, George Cruikshank, Nancy Ekholm Burkett, David Hockney, Phiz (Hablot Knight Browne), Arthur Rackham, Thomas Rowlandson, Nick Sharratt and Stref. To accompany the loaned works, the contemporary artists Pablo Bronstein, Chris Haughton and Posy Simmonds have been invited to produce a new illustration for Henry Fielding’s novel The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, first published in 1749.