The charming image in front of us here captures a mother and child outside in their garden. They enjoy some elements of nature together, perhaps collecting the blossoming flowers to then take inside and perhaps use for decorations. The artist regularly used forest scenes for his British-themed paintings but in this case we can spot enough signs of human activity that this must be more of a residential location. There is a small house in the far distance as well as several walls and paths just behind the two figures. One can imagine that perhaps the mother does this same activity every year, whenever the tree is in blossom, and that she enjoys doing so in the company of her daughter who must wait patiently whilst her mother reaches up to the tall branches. This all speaks of a time when life was much simpler, prior to the use of so much technology as we have today, and many will find such images to be both charming and also uplifting, reminding of the merits of living in and around nature and spending time with your family and friends.
The clothing found here is entirely typical of how the artist worked during this latter part of his career, with smart but fairly simple dresses worn by both mother and child. He never wanted to go away from the idea of innocence and purity, so glamour was not something that he sought for his models. Their hair is also fairly simply done, tidy but far from extravagent. They stand together in the foreground whilst the trees jut upwards from the left hand side of the painting alongside some garden features such as perhaps a small pond. A lawn makes its way beneath their feet with some touches of colour from wild flowers. A path then sweeps across the horizontal just behind that, with a residential wall marking a neighbouring property. It is the touches of white and pink on the blossoming flowers which adds some much needed colour to this piece, as well as focusing your eyes on a key part of the composition.
Artists in recent centuries have considerably broadened the styles in which portraits can be completed, as before there were academic teachings which forced most artists to work in a very similar way. Waterhouse was trained through the same formal channels but over time managed to develop his own approach which was a fusion of several different approaches that he came across at different points in his development. To display the huge contrasts that have been seen between different artists, we should also look at the likes of Henri Matisse who followed shortly afterwards but would create portraits in a very different manner. Examples of this would include the likes of Icarus, Portrait of Madame Matisse and Blue Nude.
