Audio description:
Primrose Day by Ralph Todd
Penlee House Gallery & Museum

This is a small oil painting on canvas by Ralph Todd called Primrose Day.  It measures 46 centimetres tall by 36 centimetres wide, or 18 inches tall by 14 inches wide, and was painted by the artist in 1885 when he was 31 years old.  The painting shows the corner of a room where a young girl sits in front of a table with a basket on her lap.  Several picked primroses peep over the rim of the right hand side of the basket.

The girl appears to be around 11 or 12 years of age and faces the viewer side on, so that we see her head in profile.  She is softly lit from the left and wears a dark blue winter dress that is worn and faded in places, her black stockings just showing at the lower edge of the image.  A white linen apron is tied at her waist, and a splash of colour is provided by a pink and blue checked kerchief knotted at her neck.  Her cheeks are rosy and her long fair hair falls onto her shoulders, with a fringe covering her forehead and a dark blue ribbon tied on top of her head.  

Her left hand holds the flower basket in place on her lap and her right arm rests on a table beside her, which is covered by a dark olive-coloured patterned tablecloth.  The girlŐs attitude is focused and still as she looks down at a primrose she holds on the table for a green and white butterfly that has settled on a few other primrose blossoms lying there.  The creamy yellows of the flowers stand out clearly against the tablecloth and the rest of the muted colours of the scene.

Some more of her flowers are already in a glass jar of water along with a branch of hawthorn or may at the back of the table.  To the left of the jar are some books.

The grey walls are bare except for a dull, faded red coat or smock with a few worn patches, which hangs next to a covered window at the upper right of the painting, behind the simply-carved wooden chair that the girl is sitting on.  

At the upper left of the painting, on the wall above the table, we can see the lower half of an unframed, slightly tattered, black and white printed illustration.  Several figures are seen from the neck down, standing in a street.

A sense of quietness permeates the room and there is a feeling of gentleness and intimacy to this scene.

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