JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
I noticed a couple of peculiar flourishes in this work-a-day illustration from the 26 January 1878 issue of the venerable Scientific American. It is a simple image of an "Australian Model School" in North Adelaide, Australia, one of a number of new schools opened that "exemplify the successful progress of the British Australian colonies". (It is a fine building, built of stone with brick facing, 142' long, built on a site at Tynte Street, east of O'Connell St.--the school is still there.) In any event what I noticed in the background of very busy foreground of densely compacted children at play were two small groups of kids who were interested in...something. They are bending over, finding something in the street. They occupy only a centimeter or so of the viewing area, and have been included and shown doing something out of the ordinary. No doubt the contract-artist making the woodcut had a little fun with the scene of the children in the foreground once they had completed the mail task of illustrating the subject of the small article. And then, I think, the artist had a little fun by including some tiny expression of creativity beyond the necessary and incised a couple of small mysteries. I've seen this many times in relatively complex images like this--it really doesn't take that much looking to pick those unexpected bits out.
So, here's the first found bit--the child is reacting to or reaching out for something, some piece of paper, something-or-other that sort of looks like a snake...is the kid feeding this thing with a piece of fruit or veggie that is being peddled by the main with the pushcart?
And the other scene, the second bookend to the picture, seems to show a boy picking up/putting down some small creature. If you allow your attention to drift a little you can see-ish a small head with ears and a body in the child's hand:
Whatever the case may be, I enjoy finding these artistic vacations, and over the years have found probably hundreds, though I've written on only a small number on this blog in the "Prints--looking hard/deeply at" category (found in the far right column).
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