Trees

Richard Mayhew

About 1960

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This etching is created with black ink on paper. It represents a row of houses along a street. There is a tree immediately in front of the house in the foreground. Leaning on that tree is a collapsing fence, also in front of the house. Beyond the fence is a sidewalk and then a street. Three people are walking in the street. Near the figures is a prominently placed power pole. Houses perched on hills extend down the street, receding into the background. Behind the houses is a large hill or slag pile.
Two squirrels are depicted within a tree that produces serrated edge leaves and yellowish green blossoms. The lower squirrel reaches out to grab one of the blossoms.
A May 11, 1888 review of the painting, which appeared in the [London] Globe, described the painting as follows: No story is told in Mr. F. D. Millet's "A Tender Chord," but it is a work of great refinement and beauty. It represents a tall and pensive lady of the last century standing beside a wide window with a lute in her hands. In addition to the graceful simplicity of the figure and the very artistic treatment of the draper, the picture is remarkable for its truthful illumination and unity of effect. The glow of reflected light and colour is admirably rendered.
Ezekiel of Sousse, Cadwallader Lincoln Washburn, etching