Jumping Rope Long Ago
And Other Glimpses of an Idyllic Past
As we have seen, William Mulhern sometimes used photos he took as studies for his paintings.
In this example, around 1915 he photographed his daughter Nellie (l.) and several other children, members of the neighboring Peasy family, jumping rope. He then placed them in a fanciful scene above, apparently in the old Taylorsville (now Washington Crossing), PA, where his family lived.
The town as it existed then is no more, nor are the artist and his subjects — or are they?
Do not art, happiness, the human spirit, and history endure?
