About Fairies
Etching
ca 1879 (etched)
ca 1879 (etched)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Sentimental paintings of children were extremely popular with Victorian audiences. Critics often dismissed such pictures as intellectually undemanding, yet some of the most important artists of the day took up the subject. The emotion of these pictures centre on a new, 19th -century conception of childhood as an innocent, separate state to be shielded and prolonged. They seek a protective, affectionate pang from the viewer and evoke nostalgia for the inevitably fleeting nature of childhood.
Charles Dickens wrote that fairytales ‘keep us in some sense ever young, by preserving through our worldly ways, one slender track not overgrown with weeds, where we may walk with children sharing their delights’.
Charles Dickens wrote that fairytales ‘keep us in some sense ever young, by preserving through our worldly ways, one slender track not overgrown with weeds, where we may walk with children sharing their delights’.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | About Fairies (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | etching on paper |
| Brief description | G. B. O'Neill; About Fairies; etching |
| Physical description | Etching showing an interior with three children huddled together reading a book by an open window |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | G O'Neill (Artist's signature in pencil in the bottom right-hand corner) |
| Gallery label |
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| Production | This impression is before letter. The print was later published by 'The Etching Club' in 1879 |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | Sentimental paintings of children were extremely popular with Victorian audiences. Critics often dismissed such pictures as intellectually undemanding, yet some of the most important artists of the day took up the subject. The emotion of these pictures centre on a new, 19th -century conception of childhood as an innocent, separate state to be shielded and prolonged. They seek a protective, affectionate pang from the viewer and evoke nostalgia for the inevitably fleeting nature of childhood. Charles Dickens wrote that fairytales ‘keep us in some sense ever young, by preserving through our worldly ways, one slender track not overgrown with weeds, where we may walk with children sharing their delights’. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 29325:14 |
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| Record created | January 4, 2007 |
| Record URL |
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