3-028-658 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Forget-Me-Not!", by W. C. T. Dobson, A.R.A., 1870. Engraving of a painting. 'We have taken the liberty to give an English title to this charming little picture, the artist himself having christened it "Vergissmeinnicht" the German name for the tiny blue flower...the little lass represented holds a few of the azure blooms in her hand, as turning on us the challenge of her pleasant laughing face, she seems to charge our memory with herself in their name. Mr. Dobson...is, we believe, of German parentage, and received his early education in Germany, so he may find some German words more poetically suggestive than those we may fancy to be their English equivalents. We confess we find nothing in the type or costume of the girl herself distinctly belonging to our cousins German, and therefore we appropriate her and her flowers as English. The charge she gives us from her flowery text is not necessary, for it is not easy to forget the charmingly bright and natural smile of girlish innocence with which she greets us...Although, when compared with his most serious efforts, the picture is but a trifle, yet we remember nothing of his more natural and spirited, or, in the flesh-painting, fresher and nicer in colour'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.