Playfulness In Storytelling and Art

PLAYING ON SWINGS

Racey Helps (1913-1970), British children’s book author and illustrator. The Swing Postcard

Duane Bryers (1911 – 2012)

Mabel Lucie Attwell

‘The Swing’ by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1767)

The Ladies Home Journal Magazine June 1919

Woodcut illustration from Robert Frost ‘New Hampshire’ 1923

Honor Charlotte Appleton (English, 1879-1951) from The Bower Book of Simple Poems for Boys and Girls edited by Letty and Ursula Littlewood, 1922

Playing in the Barn, Fanny Cory Cooney

Eric Drooker

Winslow Homer

Molly Brett (1902 – 1990)

William Stephen Coleman

Axel Hjalmar Ender (1853-1920)

1903 Harrison Fisher

Sergey Vladimirovich ALIMOV (1938-2019)

Marion Wildman Vanity Fair 1927

Pierre Probst (1913-2007)

PUTTING ON A SHOW

June page 2 from A Time to Keep, The Tasha Tudor Book of Holidays written and illustrated by Tasha Tudor, published by Macmillan, New York, 1977

Czech illustrator Jiri Trnka (1912-1969) illustration for Andersen’s Fairy Tales 1969

Father Tuck’s Puppet Show

Charles Hunt – Children Acting the ‘Play Scene’ from “Hamlet,” Act II, Scene ii 1863

Frederick Daniel Hardy – The Volunteers

John Burr – Little Soldier

FLYING A KITE

Maginel Wright Enright Barney (American, 1881-1966)

Woman’s World, March 1938. Art by Maginel Wright Barney

Let’s Talk about God Bobri 1956

Arthur Rackham for Rip Van Winkle 1904

DIE WUNDERFAHRT (1929) Sándor Bortnyik

From Lucy and Tom From A to X K is for Kites by Shirley Hughes

Kite flying by Shirley Hughes

Kites, 1936 Ethel Spowers (1890-1947)

PARTY GAMES

William Heath Robinson (English,1872-1944) – The Egg and Spoon Race

PLAYING AT THE SEASIDE

Postcard by Muriel Dawson (1897-1974)

PLAYING GROWN-UPS

Marie-Madeleine Dauphin (Franc-Brossier) 1878-1942

Eastman Johnson – The Old Stage Coach

Frederick Brown – Candidates for Girton 1884

Harry Brooker – Children at Play

DANCING AND SINGING

Nikolaos Gyzis (Greek, 1842 – 1901)

Richard Scarry’s Best Mother Goose Ever London Bridge game 1970

Marie-Madeleine Dauphin (Franc-Brossier) 1878-1942

FUN AT THE FAIR

John L. Wimbush (1854 – 1914)

TABLETOP GAMES

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHESS PLAYERS AND POKER PLAYERS

Chess players are strategic, constantly planning ahead and anticipating counter moves.

Poker players can still win with a weak hand so long as they raise the stakes.

Vladimir Putin is described as a poker player by the world’s top Russian chess player living in New York.

New Yorker magazine cover July 1973 Gerhard Richter

Sir William Orpen (Irish, 1878-1931) The Chess Players

Draughts illustration by Edmund Dulac

Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass Brigitte Bryan 1969

Thomas Faed – A Game of Draughts

SPORT

Our Jolly Holidays Put-together Book story by M. Helena Crofts pictures by Helen E. Ohrenschall 1928

Winslow Homer

Johan Mengels Culverhouse

Winslow Homer

Croquet

Lady Cricketers – A Good Catch 1889

The English Lady Cricketers – Miss Stanley Batting

Marie-Madeleine Dauphin (Franc-Brossier) 1878-1942 badminton

The Tabby-Fur Family written by Tracey May, illustrated by Hilda Boswell, published by R. A. Publishing Company, London, 1948

DIE WUNDERFAHRT (1929) Sándor Bortnyik, honestly I’m not sure what’s going on here.

Harry Brooker – The Tug of War

A Christmas Dance – The Lancers 1889

Members-of-a-Ladies-Hockey-Club-at-play

STRING GAMES (CAT’S CRADLE)

Kathleen Hale, Games for a wet camping holiday, ‘don’t touch the inside of the tent’ taken from her first Orlando title, A Camping Holiday 1938

FOOD GAMES

Charles West Cope – Breakfast Time, Morning Games

HIDE AND SEEK

The Little People by Garth Williams (1912-1996) c1948 an unpublished illustration for Housekeeping Magazine

1952 Children’s Book Hide-Away Puppy Rand McNally

Edna Eicke

Marie-Madeleine FRENCH NOHAIN

Coming Ready Or not by Lolita Séchan, Camille Jourdy

SKIPPING

Marie-Madeleine FRENCH NOHAIN skipping rope

Header illustration: Sports Day Illustration Racey Helps (1913-1970)

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