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MG Mary had a Little Lamb
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Mother Goose Series -- Mary Had a Little Lamb by John Mclelland.
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$45.50
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| Mother Goose Series -- Mary Had a Little Lamb by John Mclelland.
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Mother Goose Series -- Mary Had a Little Lamb by John Mclelland. Seventh issue in the series for Reco International. Production date 1985. Plate size approx 8.5 inches. Suggested retail $65.00.
Mary's lamb has followed her to school and, in the process, caused quite a commotion among her classmates. Now, face to face with her amused teacher, Mary is rosy with embarassment. She knows that lambs don't belong at school – and yet she can't resist a smile. This has been fun!
"Mary Had a Little Lamb," seventh issue in the Mother Goose collection, is yet another example of John McClelland's remarkable insights into young children and their world. By giving us a portrait of a child who is as much spice as sugar, McClelland has taken a beloved nursery-rhyme character and made her into a real little girl. In doing so he breathes new life into these well-known lines of verse and makes an enduring statement on what being a child is all about.
Mary is a pretty girl, with blond hair tied back with a flower-sprigged kerchief and the wide blue eyes that have become a McClelland trademark. The artist handles her with a delicacy and gentleness befitting a little girl. Lightly applied, softly modulated washes of color lend her an air of softness and vulnerability reinforced by the loose white clouds that frame her. In her frilly lavender dress, white stockings and black patent leathers, Mary is the picture of girlish femininity.
But one look at her lively face belies her prim and proper appearance. Almost in spite of herself, a smile tugs at her lips. The excitement of showing off her prized pet at school is simply irresistible. Mary's obvious enjoyment of her prank wins us over completely. And so we are ready–and willing–to suspend our disbelief and enter McClelland's world.
And that world is, as always, crafted with a realism that rivals the eye of a camera. Every detail is just right: the little red schoolhouse, the even redder apple, the lamb's black shoe-button eyes, vivid colors from a child's paintbox, transformed by a master's hand. Yet even with his meticulous attention to detail, McClelland takes care to retain the fairytale quality that has made "Mary Had a Little Lamb" such a favorite for so many years.
That John McClelland enjoys his art is obvious in the humor and whimsy that give "Mary Had a Little Lamb" its charm. But his empathy for his young subject and his affinity with his audience are apparent as well. McClelland invites us to be participants as well as onlookers at the little tableau before our eyes, to leave behind our adult sensibilities and share in Mary's experience with the freshness and openness of the children we once were.
Mary may be an old-fashioned girl posed before a one-room school, but the look on her clean-scrubbed face is timeless. Through Mary we relive a moment we all must surely remember: when our childish misdeeds were discovered and we were called to account for our actions. Her sheer glee at having defied authority is unmistakable–as is the pure sense of mischief that is undaunted, even though she's been caught in the act. McClelland's Mary is nothing more or less than a captivating imp, and thoroughly charmed by her and her four-legged companion, we cannot help but smile back.
"Mary Had a Little Lamb" may be John McClelland's finest work to date. His level of technical mastery and his eye for color are remarkable; yet his success goes beyond his dexterity with a brush and canvas. McClelland gives us something more precious than a work of beauty: he gives us memories that not even time can fade. His is the gift of our own long-ago childhoods.
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