This is practically the last of the water-colours which were the outcome of earlier pictures executed in black and white for the illustration of books.
The story is from Deborah’s Drawer, by Eleanor Grace O’Reilly, for which, as Helen Paterson, our artist had made nine drawings in 1870, at a time when she was so inexperienced in drawing on the wood that in more than one instance her monogram appears turned the wrong way. Mr. Bell, the publisher of the book, subsequently commissioned her to make a companion water-colour to “The Young Customers,” and suggested one of the illustrations called “Ralph’s Girls” as the basis for a subject.
The little black-robed girls were twins, whose mother had recently died, and who had been placed under the care of a grandmother, who forgot their youth and spirits. They were imaginative children, and indulged in delightfully original games. One (that of personating a sportsman named Jenkins and a dog called Tubbs, who together went partridge-shooting through a big field of cabbages laden with dew) they had just been taking part in. Tired out with it, they decided to be themselves again, and to mount to the hayloft and play another favourite game, that of “remembering.” This meant taking them back over their short lives, which ended up with their most recent remembrance, their mother’s death. Whilst talking over this they are summoned from their retreat, and have to appear with their black dresses soaked with the dew from the cabbages, and with hay adhering everywhere to their deep crape trimmings. Hence much penance!
16. THE RABBIT HUTCH
From the Drawing the property of Mr. C. P. Johnson.
Painted 1880.
Painted in London, but from sketches made near Broadstairs, the house seen over the wall being one of those that are to be found along the east coast, which bear a decided evidence of Dutch influence in their architecture. Here again we have evidence that Mrs. Allingham might, had she been so minded, have succeeded with animals as well as she has with human figures and landscape. A little play is being enacted; the dog, evidently a rival of the inhabitants of the hutch, has to be kept at a distance while their feeding is going on, lest his jealousy might find an outlet in an onslaught upon them.
17. THE DONKEY RIDE
From the Water-colour in the possession of Sir James Kitson, Bart., M.P.
Painted 1880.
This drawing was executed just at the turning of the ways, when London was to be exchanged for country life, and studio for out-of-door painting. What an increased power came about through the change will be seen by a comparison between this “Donkey Ride” and the “Children’s Tea” ([Plate 23]). Only two years separate them in date; but whilst in the one we have timidity and hesitancy, in the other the end is practically assured. In “The Donkey Ride” we have evidences of experiments, especially in the direction of finicking stippling (all over the sea and sky) and of the use of body-colour (in the baby’s bonnet and the flowers), which were abandoned later on, to the artist’s exceeding great benefit. What we expect to find, and do find, is the pure sentiment, and the dainty freshness, which is never absent from the earliest efforts onwards.
The scene is the cliffs near Broadstairs, Mrs. Allingham’s two eldest children occupying the panniers.