3-021-007 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Sunshine", by L. Smythe, in Wallis's Winter Exhibition, Suffolk-Street, 1865. Engraving of a painting. 'The scene,...as is evident by the quaint caps and head-gear of the women...is on the neighbouring coast of France - somewhere, we should say, along the seaboard of Picardy or Artois. It is a scene which...anyone might see, strolling about the neighbourhood, say, of Boulogne or Calais...The buxom lass of the picture, full in the sunbeam, leaning back in her chair to indulge in a more complete abandonment of mirth, is but a type of her joyous, witty, and innocently-coquettish class. To all this cheerful group of women and children the sunshine brings gladness and content, and lights them to weave hope with the meshes of their net; for, while that sun smiles on them, no shadow of apprehension for husband, father, son, brother, lover, away reaping the sea, can darken that humble dwelling'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.