Childhood through the eyes of Portrait Painters

This year the Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition has a mini-theme of Childhood, and The RP Award will be presented for the best portrait on this theme.

Prizewinners will be announced here at 5pm on Thursday 6 May.

See the full collection of Childhood portraits on our Pinterest Board here

Frances Bell RP regularly paints children: "It’s usually far more of a collaborative process than parents expect it to be. They have to help the child come through to you. I usually pump the parents for information and they give you a lot. When painting children they just sit there and sort of stare at you; they are hardly going to strike up a debate with you, so the parents are really important in helping you to flesh out their character traits...

I am very organic in my technique, when dealing with young people they are straight out of nature, they don’t have any sort of private side or public face they are just as they appear."

Frances Bell RP Flora Oil

If you are interested in commission a portrait of your own children or grandchildren, you have come to the right place.

The Royal Society of Portraits artists are the very best and our service makes commissioning a portrait enjoyable and easy. You can work in one of two ways; either our expert consultant will guide you from your initial thought through to completion, or you can work directly with our artists through the website.

Find out about commissioning a portrait