“The Children’s Story Book” Postcard

Nineteenth century oil on canvas by Sophie Anderson. Sophie Anderson, 1823 -1903, was a French-born British artist who specialised in genre painting of children and women, typically in rural settings. Her work is loosely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Her early works showed strong attention to botanical and other detail, in common with the Pre-Raphaelites. Here a group of country children are reading from a story book. They are poor, judging by the holes in the boy's socks, but happy. This sunlit scene of childhood merriment contains the essential ingredients of the nineteenth century rustic idyll: the association of the English countryside with innocence and old-fashioned values. The formula was popular in an age of rapid industrialisation.