Children at Breakfast

Anker painted this in 1879, the same year as his picture of the village quack, and it stays just as close to ordinary life. It shows children at their morning meal in a farm kitchen, the plain breakfast of the Bernese countryside, bread and something warm in a bowl. Nothing is being taught here and no drama unfolds. It is a few minutes of an ordinary day, watched closely enough to be worth keeping. Anker painted children more than any other subject, and he gave a scene like this the same seriousness a portrait painter reserved for the wealthy. The canvas stands upright and modest in size, about 81 by 65 centimetres.