School is over

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‘School is over’.

Kate Greenaway (1846-1901)

1879

7¾ x 5¾ inches

Coloured wood-block engraving by Edmund Evans

Under the Window, 21

Rural school life was an important theme in genre painting of the period, and Greenaway provides her own version here. Typically, the scene is highly idealized, with a procession of children dressed in Regency costumes, going home across a pastoral landscape with idealized architecture in the background. [Commentary continues below.]

Scan, text and formatting by Simon Cooke.

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This group of children displays Greenaway’s strengths and weaknesses: she displays a strong capacity to create movement and decorative patterns, but could be criticised for her failure to individualize the characters. The faces have a doll-like sameness and are devoid of expression, save a sort of blank emptiness as if in reverie; given that school is over, we might expect to see smiling faces. On this occasion, at least, the illustration is at odds with the uplifting poem and its invocation to run and laugh.

Bibliography

Greenaway, Kate. Under the Window. London: George Routledge, 1879.

Created 14 June 2021