3-011-822 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Boy Asleep", sculpture, by Alexander Munro, in the Royal Academy Exhibition, 1864. 'This most charming, but at the same time most difficult, subject has been treated...with rare feeling and delicacy...[and] with close adherence to nature. The body and limbs of the child generally express the consentaneous relaxation of sleep. The left arm - with the hand filled with flowers placed across the bosom - is especially happy in its indication of perfect repose. The slight protrusion, too, of the soft cheek, through the pressure of the falling head on the neck and shoulder, has been closely observed and imitated from nature...We would invite the reader to observe, also, that Mr. Munro has added to the inherent charm of his subject by the graceful fancy shown in the accessories. He has suggested by the bunch of wild hyacinths (flowers sometimes employed, if we remember rightly, as emblematic of sleep) which the child holds in its chubby hand, and by the soft couch of ferns and flowers on which it lies, that it has tired itself out gathering its simple posy of "blue bells," and that, finding an inviting spot in its little ramble, it has thereupon given itself up to sleep'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.