3-028-687 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"First Love," by Mulready, 1870. 'The picture which we engrave...is a favourable example of an interesting transitional period in the practice of that admirable English master. Painted in 1839,...it shows a paramount aim, technically considered, at beauty of colouring - an aim perfectly according with the warm feeling and idyllic sentiment of the subject...How well the artist has suggested the intense yet delicate sensibilities, the passionate yet modestly-restrained emotions proper to his theme, we need not remark. The official description in the South Kensington Museum catalogue very accurately describes the picture: "A girl just budding into womanhood leans against a wall, with an infant brother asleep in her arms; behind her a youth in a red smock-frock, resting on a stile, regards her with a look of intense love: neither seems to speak, both being entirely absorbed, yet fully conscious of each other and of the intense feeling of first love. The shouts of the mother and brother, calling to the evening's meal, are utterly unnoticed in their deep absorption; beneath the stile two dogs are playing with and fondling each other." The picture is one of Mulready's many masterpieces included in Mr. Sheepshanks's noble gift to the nation'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.