On September 19th, a ‘little great artist’ will inaugurate his first exhibition, exactly two weeks after his third birthday. Laurent Schwarz, considered a ‘mini-Picasso’ is already a highly appreciated artistic talent in Germany – is originally from Neubeuern, in Upper Bavaria – and abroad. Where even five-figure sums are offered for his paintings, the German press emphasizes.
The hype around Laurent, according to his parents, started by chance, by posting the image of their son’s first work “The Fingers” on Instagram, so that family members in Switzerland and his grandmother could share it. Other images followed. “Then a gallery wrote to us. Shortly after, the first paintings were sold,” they say.
The child now has over 60,000 followers on Instagram. According to his parents, there are about 20,000 people on the waiting list: many of his 35 works have been sold in the United States, Paris and London, others in the Bahamas, Japan and Singapore. The child, who is barely as big as some of the canvases he works on, He discovered his passion during a holiday in Italy, in Alto Adige.
Since then, his parents Lisa and Philipp, who run a business in Neubeuern, have been unable to tear him away from color. His paintings “are abstract and what is unusual is the way he integrates distinguishable figures, which is what people often tell us and what makes them so popular,” his proud mother told The Times of London.
“You can clearly distinguish the animals, such as elephants, which are one of his favorite animals, as well as dinosaurs and horses. It is very important to him that everything is bright and colorful. Brown and other boring colors do not interest him. He has very clear ideas about the colors he mixes,” she explained.
Ma While the child enjoys painting and playing, the money is all deposited in a current account which he will not be able to access until he turns 18.. The mother assures that, while she encourages her son’s talent and passion, she does not push him. “It’s up to him to decide when and what to paint,” she said. “Sometimes he doesn’t feel like it and doesn’t set foot in his studio – set up especially for him in the house – for three or four weeks, but then suddenly he says: ‘Mom, paint.’
Many people talk about a child prodigy, others try to put it into perspective and call for caution.noting that the outcry over a child’s painting raises questions. But children’s artistic interest is always a good thing, and certainly something to be encouraged, they point out, quoting Picasso: “All children are born artists. The problem is how to remain artists as they grow up.”