A miniature watercolour of a mother and child. Signed below on a fictive gilded ribbon.

Thornton Clarke’s watercolour takes the form of a faux oval painting with gilded frame, common to miniature portraiture since the early sixteenth century. Like many of the drawings and watercolours in the Dolls’ House, it reflects a conservative taste and sentimental outlook prevalent in the Edwardian period.

The theme of Mother and Child is explored in a variety of ways by the Dolls’ House artists. While Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh depicts the Madonna and Child in an art nouveau style (RCIN 927178), Louis Ginnett's mother and child are everyday figures represented in a timeless idiom (RCIN 9270260).