Peep-Bo

Children, Games, Motherhood, Women: Leisure Time

Dimensions

Image Dimensions: 12.4 x 18.3 cm
Support Dimensions: 28.6 x 39.0 cm

Commenting in the accompanying catalogue letterpress, Henry Peach Robinson writes of his son Ralph W. Robinson’s work and this plate:

The writer is at some pause in expressing his pleasure on seeing the group of pictures which occupies the centre of the chief wall (334, etc., R.W. Robinson)-a pleasure which would have been greater if some of the frames had been less pronounced-his cause for doubt being that those injuriously disposed may say he had a personal interest in the pictures, the artist being his son; but as he sees them for the first time on the walls, and would not, certainly, in this case of all others, forget that “Praise undeserved is satire in disguise,” he thinks he may venture to trust himself not to be biased by personal feeling.

The set of three printed in red chalk have great delicacy, yet largeness of effect, Medora (334) being the most original in motive. We have selected Peep-bo (337) for illustration, as it is the most suitable for the process employed, and because there is a suggestion of humour in it which is rare in photography. A mother, putting her head suddenly through a hole in a gate, cries “Peep-bo” to her two-year-old. The answering smile of the little one to the mother’s laugh is perfect. Anything less perfect would be complete failure.