Childhood's joys and childhood's sorrows, its beauty, and even its
little frailties--in fact, everything connected with the dawn of life,
has its own especial charm. It is, perhaps, not given to all of us
to detect with a sympathetic eye the picturesque in a very naughty
young person, who hits at every moment on a fresh idea to make his
fellow-creatures uncomfortable: nor is the spectacle of children in
their best-loved state of dirty happiness too pleasing to the average
observer. But the artist's eye sees things differently. Happily so; his
imaginative brain sees the humour of the little self-assertions, and
the pathetic side of the joy of living even in the gutter. Yet, after
all is said, it remains, of course, a certain truth that there are many
aspects of child-life which can only in reality be fully understood by
mothers.
The subject of our first picture--"Asleep," by the French painter, F.
Charderon--is a little masterpiece of its kind. There may be prettier
children than this one, but the natural and unconscious grace of the
little warm and rosy body is infinitely charming.
Charming, too, is the face in the medallion in the heading of this
article--the face of a child-angel, which seems to watch over the
figure of the human child asleep below. It is taken from a painting by
Bernardo Strozzi.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: "FLOWER OF THE HEATH."
_From the Painting by Schwentzen._