Graphite and Watercolor Schoolgirl Portrait: Blanch, c. 1873 x-acto knife set Apart from her face

Apart from her face

as I think they're really beautiful (and just the right size for me

These wonderful hand-carved wooden feet

and I swear not a week goes by that I don’t think of them

I like how the thin strips of wood drawing a line between one house and the other and then again on either far side seem to suggest that this neighborhood might extend ad infinitum in either direction--ah

Graphite and Watercolor Schoolgirl Portrait: Blanch, c. 1873 x-acto knife set Apart from her faceFour of these I found together, only one of them dated on the back, locating them all I think in 1873. It seems they may each have been done by a different school girl each with a different name signed to the back, as well as a different subject named on the front. (Perhaps collected by a teacher?) A customer recently noted to me that naive drawings of this sort make her heart beat faster and the same is true for me, just pure joy, and also offering a