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Gatherings, outings and automobiles

Picnic in bush - Leura, NSW

This group of five children appear to have been carefully arranged around the bush setting so that they appear to cascade down the rocks like the waterfall in the background. Classified covertly by their attributes and the accompanying written text in the title as children picnicking in the bush, their clothing and posture identify them as children from the upper classes.

Although classified as a group of children, there are several differences in the way in which the boy and the girls have been represented in this image. The boy has been placed in the upper left of the group and stands slightly apart from the girls, having tossed down his hat in a gentlemanly gesture. The girls' posture and clothing are identical, with the exception of their headdress - the older girls wear bows, the younger wear bonnets. They sit in an attitude of demure sweetness. Although he appears to be younger and smaller than at least two of the girls the boy has been placed at the top left and he is standing rather than sitting. The boy appears to have been represented as a separate individual and possibly the most powerful member of the group.

We may also read some embedded symbolic meanings in this image. Framed by elements from nature: the bush; rocks, trees and water, the children are shown as natural, 'innocent' and part of nature.

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