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Description: | Signed: yes Description: A girl is standing in the grass, holding her baby sister. The baby is looking at two butterflies. In Matthijs Maris's view children and animals were interchangeable symbols of innocence; both were in a paradisiacal state of ignorance. Moreover, the butterfly, which Maris also used in The Butterflies (1874, Glasgow Museums, The Burrell Collection, no. 35.330) is a traditional symbol of transience. In Maris's case this symbol could be seen as a reference to the passing phase of innocence and the transition into the world of knowledge, which Maris regarded in a negative light. According to the grand-daughter of the former owner P. G. B. Westmacott, Ms. Cochrane, her grandfather requested Matthijs Maris to add the butterflies after he had finished the painting so that the girl would seem to be looking at something. | Subjects: | figure; landscape; animal (butterflies) | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Maris, Matthijs (Dutch painter, 1839-1917) Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8756... | Go to resource |
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