Here We Come Gathering Nuts in May by Elizabeth Adela Forbes (née Armstrong), ARWS (1859-1912). Black chalk and watercolour and bodycolour, on paper 20 x 28 in. (50.7 x 71.1 cm.). Source: Birch, facing p. 52. The children are taking part in the traditional singing and dancing game which was part of the May Day festivities. Two rows advance towards each other, singing. Each row selects someone from the other side, and these two try to pull each other back into their own row. At length, one row is much larger than the other and is declared the winner. As Karen Dolby expains, "Nuts could refer to ground nuts, or pig nuts, which appear in May and were typically picked by children as they grow low down and are not very plentiful. Or the line might have originally been ‘knots’ of May meaning hawthorn or May blossom" (126). The latter seems to be the more widely held explanation. Even more than in On a Fine Day, Forbes captures the gaiety of the moment, along with the "sense of breadth" and "feeling of simplicity" that she and her husband advocated as a goal for the artists of the art school they set up in Newlyn (qtd. in Birch 111).
Details about the medium and dimensions of this work were found on a Christie's website (Live Auction 1128), where it is recorded as having been sold in 2013, much above estimate, for £73,875. The date of the work is not given.
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Image acquisition, text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.
Bibliography
Birch, Mrs Lionel. Stanhope A. Forbes, ARA, and Elizabeth Stanhope Forbes, ARWS. London: Cassell, 1906. Internet Archive. Contributed by the Kahl/Austin Foundation. Web. 27 February 2021.
Dolby, Karen. Oranges and Lemons: Rhymes from Past Times>. London: Michael O'Mara, 2012.
Created 7 March 2021