A Sunny Stroll

Mortimer Menpes

1901

Watercolour

Source: Japan, A Record in Colour, facing p. 146

At the end of the chapter on children, Menpes recalls strolling beyond a temple's grounds, past "the cherry-trees and dainty tea-houses," and finding himself "in a cool grey-green forest of bamboo" (150). Here he seems to be recording another such peaceful moment, when just a few children pass by, oblivious of the artist's eye, absorbed in their own little worlds. Every scene has an interest for Menpes, even the most desultory. He has a gift for making something special of the "ordinary." — Jacqueline Banerjee

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