Open Your Mouth and Shut Your Eyes

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On display at V&A South Kensington

Paintings, Room 82, The Edwin and Susan Davies Galleries

Artist/Maker	Mulready, William (RA) (artist)
Place of origin	Great Britain (painted)

The subject is taken from an old nursey saying: 'Open your mouth, shut your eyes, and see what Providence will send you'. Mulready has adapted the context to adolescence. The painting was probably a companion piece to 'The Sonnet', another painting by Mulready.

Object details

Categories	Paintings Access_to_Images 2003 Children & Childhood
Object type	Oil painting
Title	Open Your Mouth and Shut Your Eyes (popular title)
Materials and techniques	oil on panel Oil Paint Panel Oil Painting
Brief description	Oil painting entitled 'Open Your Mouth and Shut Your Eyes' by William Mulready. Great Britain, 1838.
Physical description	Oil painting entitled 'Open Your Mouth and Shut Your Eyes' depicting a man lying in a field with a young baby, feeding cherries to a girl.
Dimensions	Estimate height: 31.5cm Estimate width: 30.2cm Dimensions taken from Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990
Style	British School
Credit line	Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
Object history	Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857
Subjects depicted	Children Cherry Fruit
Summary	The subject is taken from an old nursey saying: 'Open your mouth, shut your eyes, and see what Providence will send you'. Mulready has adapted the context to adolescence. The painting was probably a companion piece to 'The Sonnet', another painting by Mulready.
Bibliographic reference	Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, pp. 202-204
Collection	Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number	FA.143[O]

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Record created	May 22, 2003
Record URL	https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O80982/open-your-mouth-and-shut-oil-painting-mulready-william-ra/

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