Chatsworth's new art exhibition is Picturing Childhood with works by Raphael, Lucien Freud, Edwin Landseer and Joshua Reynolds

Picturing Childhood, running from March 16 to October 6, 2024, will take inspiration from playful histories at Chatsworth and offer multi-sensory experiences to engage audiences of all ages and background.

Visitors will be invited to hopscotch their way to the entrance before being greeted by Peter Newman’s Sky Station in the Inner Court, inviting visitors to look up and experience Chatsworth’s historic spaces in new ways.

Additional artist commissions including a periscope by Abigail Reynolds have been installed around the house, garden and park whilst food historian and scent artist Tasha Marks will create an aromatic intervention in the Great Dining Room. Inspired by menus from the 6th Duke of Devonshire’s archive, Marks’ commission will evoke the aromas of a Victorian meal that the 13-year-old Princess Victoria may have been served in the Great Dining Room at her first formal dinner at Chatsworth in 1832.

Families will be invited to read and listen together throughout the exhibition, and a primary school outreach project will culminate in a week-long ‘takeover’ by pupils at Chatsworth in June. This will be complemented by a season-wide public programme of events to include a Children’s Festival, a new phase of the redevelopment of the playground at Chatsworth, and the launch of a new £10 child ticket to encourage more families to visit and enjoy Chatsworth all year round.

The new exhibition will span five centuries from the Tudors through the Elizabethan and Stuart periods to the present day, with works by artists including Raphael, Anthony van Dyck, Edwin Landseer and Lucien Freud installed throughout the house in historic spaces such as the Chapel, the State Apartment and the Oak Room.

Exploring themes ranging from family relationships to identity and colonialism, collection highlights including Old Master drawings by Carracci and intergenerational representations of the Devonshire family by Joshua Reynolds, are complemented by institutional loans such as two Johan Zoffany paintings from Tate that highlight growing societal interests in children’s education and upbringing in the Georgian period.

These artworks will be shown alongside objects including an 18th century baby carriage and a Victorian silver-gilt christening set as well as an extract from a first edition of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ (in which Chatsworth is the inspiration for Pemberley) describing the Gardiner children.

Dr Alexandra Hodby, senior curator of programme, and Gill Hart, head of learning and engagement, at Chatsworth, said: “With this exhibition we wanted to focus attention on the children whose presence and personalities shine strongly in the works selected from the collection, but it was equally important to provide all our visitors with new perspectives on the artworks, the artists and the house and garden.

“Visitors can expect to engage all of their senses, and experience more moments to slow down, be playful or thoughtful. We hope that we will provide new perspectives of Chatsworth, be it through the eyes of an adult or a child.”