Photo: One of our Breadwatchers by Frederic Shields. Courtesy of Manchester Art Gallery.

Rosy Cheeks and Harsh Realities: A Country Childhood is on at Manchester Art Gallery until March 14.

Bringing together contemporary reports and watercolours, the exhibition aims to show conflicting views of a country childhood in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Often portraying the countryside in a romantic, idealised way, Victorian painters invariably overlooked the life of hard work and poverty that befell most rural families. Instead their subjects were presented as clean, well dressed and rosy cheeked.

Photo: Kitty by Helen Allingham. Courtesy of Manchester Art Gallery.

There was a ready market for these pictures particularly in the new industrial towns as many Victorian town dwellers had recent nostalgic memories of life in the country.

The exhibition features sweeping scenes of country life by Miles Birket Foster as well work by Helen Allingham. Another painting on show by David Cox, one of the 19th century's greatest landscape painters, shows children flying a kite on a windy day.

It’s only an image by Manchester artist Frederic Shields that breaks this romantic mould. One of our Breadwatchers depicts a small girl left out in the snow to scare birds away from recently sown fields of wheat.

Contrasting with these paintings are journal reports and illustrations, which expose the harsh realities of rural life.

Photo: Haytime by Myles Birkett Foster. Courtesy of Manchester Art Gallery.

Publications such as the London Illustrated News, Punch and The Graphic began to highlight poor conditions in the country, particularly from the 1850s onwards.

The exhibition features a selection of reports and drawings from these periodicals, reporting downturns in agriculture, the so called 'swing riots' against the use of farm machinery, the terrible state of country cottages, and the plight of children.

A series of events relating to the exhibition has been planned and includes a demonstration of Victorian games (February 1, 13.00-15.00) and an exhibition talk (February 4, 13.00-13.30).