Questions to arouse interest. Where do you think this little girl is sitting? Does she look as if she were sitting still or moving? Do you think she is happy, sad, full of fun, or mischievous? What has she on her head? How is her hair combed? How is she dressed? What has she on her hands? In what way is she different from the little girls we know? What can you see behind her? How many like this picture? why?
Original Picture: Mrs. Thwaite’s Private Collection.
Artist: Sir Joshua Reynolds (rĕn´ŭldz).
Birthplace: Plympton, England.
Dates: Born, 1723; died, 1792.
The story of the picture. This quaint little Penelope Boothby, sitting so prim with her queer cap and black silk mitts, looks as if she knows a secret that pleases her very much. Perhaps that dress she is wearing is long, and she is pretending she is some great lady who has just come to call upon the artist, Sir Joshua Reynolds. It must have been fun to walk about his great yard, with her long dress sweeping over the soft green grass. It looks as if the artist had lifted her into the window of his studio, and painted her as she sat there. The half mischievous look on her face makes us think she will jump down and run out among the trees at any moment. We wonder what makes her look so pleased.
Perhaps Sir Joshua Reynolds is telling her a story—maybe the one about his father. He lived in the country and one day decided to go to town on horseback. It had rained very hard, and the roads were muddy, so he wore high-topped boots. These boots were a little large for him, and as he rode along, swinging his feet, for he was riding bareback, one of his boots fell off. He was thinking of other things, and did not miss his boot until he rode into town and wanted to go into the store. Imagine how he must have felt when he discovered his loss.
“One boot on and one boot off,
How the neighbors laugh and scoff;
Such an absent-minded man