3-020-993 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"May I Go With You?" by F. Shields, in the Winter Exhibition, Society of Painters in Water Colours, 1868. '...it is hard to say whether the drawing which has furnished one of our fine-art illustrations is intended to represent the pathetic or the humorous - whether one of the little trivial sorrows or one of the no less trivial joys which poetical authority tells us make up the sum of human life equally for the young and the old...he proportion of joy or sorrow experienced by that little fellow so eagerly begging to be allowed to accompany his elder sister must be estimated according to the degree of probability of his request being granted...What we perceive clearly is a moment of expectancy...Our own inexperience...leaves us in the dark as to whether the boy knows whither his sister is going, whether to market or fair, or to take supplies to father at work. So we really cannot determine the motive which actuates our young suppliant: it may be the yearning of affection; it may be simply a desire for sight-seeing; it may be only a prodigal craving to expend a hoarded penny on sweetmeat, toy, or fruit. The truth is, we can find nothing to say about Mr, Shields's picture; but far be it from us to hint that it is any the worse for all that'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.