HOME. An Original Illustration in Watercolour and Pencil for "CHILDHOOD".

An original illustration beautifully executed in watercolour and pencil. Annotated by the artist in margin beneath the mount. From "Childhood", a 1907 collection of children's verse written by the artist's sister Githa Sowerby. The illustration shows a woman leading a little girl through a verdant flower garden while three other girls play with racquets in the background. The illustration itself measures 12.5 cm x 17 cm, the sheet of paper 14.5 cm x 19 cm, and the gold mount 18 cm x 23.5 cm. Later published by Chatto and Windus, this illustration appears opposite page 40 of the first edition, at the beginning of the seventeenth verse.

Original works by Millicent Sowerby are very rare; tragically, after her death, Sowerby's niece burned many of them, believing them to be of no value. Childhood, which this illustration is from, was the second children's book she created with her sister Githa. Sowerby's work has been often complimented as sharing a similarity with the work of Kate Greenaway, though her work generally emphasises attention to detail and careful, smooth, three-dimensional rendering more than Greenaway's.