DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0454
428 OLD WORLD MASTERS
nous, white gown in place. Pinkie’s eyes are brown, large, and lustrous
and her brown hair is touzled by the wind; but she looks at us so sweetly
and brightly that we love her at first sight. How daintily her little
slippered foot is planted on the flower-sprinkled turf! Her airy,
youthful, billowy figure suggests the idea of Spring beneath whose
every footstep flowers instantly appear in full bloom.
How far she has come! Do we not see her home in the distance on
the right, encircled by a crescent of leafy trees and with a wide drive-
way through the clearing?
“Pinkie’s” name was Sarah Moulton-Barrett, and she was the only
daughter of Charles Moulton, Esq., and his wife Elizabeth Barrett
Moulton. Pinkie was born March 22, 1783, and the lovely child died
at the age of twelve, the year in which this portrait was painted. It
is interesting to note that Pinkie was the aunt of the famous poet,
Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who was the daughter of Pinkie’s
brother, Edward Moulton-Barrett of Coxhoe Hall, Durham, and Hope
End, Hereford.
The portrait, oils on canvas (57P2 x 39%! inches), was painted in
1795 and was formerly in the Collection of Octavius Moulton-Bar-
rett, Esq., Westover, Calbourne, Isle of Wight, and thence it passed
to the Right Hon. Lord Michelham, K. C. V. O., London. A modern
critic rapturously expresses what every one feels on looking at this
enchanting picture:
“ If ever canvas was instinct with life, this picture lives and breathes.
If ever the vehicle of oil paint spread on canvas has caught the wind
as it blows, the light that dances in a mischievous child’s eyes, the
breath of life and joy in living, Lawrence, in this picture, achieved
the miracle. You feel, as you look at it, that you could read small
print by its light in the dead of night. The color of it is the color of
sea-downs on a May morning; the joy of it is of the joy of the first
warm day of Spring. And in the little girl’s graceful figure are com-
prised whatever things are lovely, whatever things are pure, to the
minds of men.”
nous, white gown in place. Pinkie’s eyes are brown, large, and lustrous
and her brown hair is touzled by the wind; but she looks at us so sweetly
and brightly that we love her at first sight. How daintily her little
slippered foot is planted on the flower-sprinkled turf! Her airy,
youthful, billowy figure suggests the idea of Spring beneath whose
every footstep flowers instantly appear in full bloom.
How far she has come! Do we not see her home in the distance on
the right, encircled by a crescent of leafy trees and with a wide drive-
way through the clearing?
“Pinkie’s” name was Sarah Moulton-Barrett, and she was the only
daughter of Charles Moulton, Esq., and his wife Elizabeth Barrett
Moulton. Pinkie was born March 22, 1783, and the lovely child died
at the age of twelve, the year in which this portrait was painted. It
is interesting to note that Pinkie was the aunt of the famous poet,
Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who was the daughter of Pinkie’s
brother, Edward Moulton-Barrett of Coxhoe Hall, Durham, and Hope
End, Hereford.
The portrait, oils on canvas (57P2 x 39%! inches), was painted in
1795 and was formerly in the Collection of Octavius Moulton-Bar-
rett, Esq., Westover, Calbourne, Isle of Wight, and thence it passed
to the Right Hon. Lord Michelham, K. C. V. O., London. A modern
critic rapturously expresses what every one feels on looking at this
enchanting picture:
“ If ever canvas was instinct with life, this picture lives and breathes.
If ever the vehicle of oil paint spread on canvas has caught the wind
as it blows, the light that dances in a mischievous child’s eyes, the
breath of life and joy in living, Lawrence, in this picture, achieved
the miracle. You feel, as you look at it, that you could read small
print by its light in the dead of night. The color of it is the color of
sea-downs on a May morning; the joy of it is of the joy of the first
warm day of Spring. And in the little girl’s graceful figure are com-
prised whatever things are lovely, whatever things are pure, to the
minds of men.”