Maxfield Parrish was the most popular American artist/illustrators of the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. Norman Rockwell succeeded him in that position, but Rockwell didn’t put himself in the same class as Parrish, and neither do I, charming (and, occasionally, deeply perceptive) as Rockwell was.

Parrish was a genius at capturing that stunning yet delicate effect of golden sunlight through clear blue skies and green leaves, gilding everything in a buttery glow. His pictures bring joy to my heart and help me see the piercing beauty of actual fact of such light.

WRITING PROMPT: Write a scene based on this picture. It can be from the POV of the people in the picture, the person not pictured but from whose POV the figures are being observed, the painter or someone looking at the painting.

MA