Water Lilies, a Picture Book by Mabel, Illustrated by George Lambert
Water Lilies is a simple story about a group of two girls (sisters who love flowers), two boys (their brothers who love fishing), and a dog who went on a picnic by a boat. Nothing surprising happens; they row through the water, take a break for lunch, catch some fish, and let the dog swim a bit. Such picture books were published at the end of the 19th century, offering little excitement or anything truly special as artworks. Yet, this particular story, written by Mabel (clearly a pseudonym) and illustrated by George Lambert, deserves our attention for its purity and innocence, represented by the simple actions of the characters in the book and also by the title. Water lilies, if you are not familiar with their symbolism, represent exactly that: innocence and purity.
Quite a difference from how the contemporary generation imagines spending their free time, right?
We will go through all the illustrations in this vintage picture book, and you can read the story on your own.
That's it. The back cover is identical to the front, which is another indication of the simplified approach employed by the Frederick Warne & Co. publishing house in London.
As the writer is credited 'Mabel,' a bit of detective work in the available online databases actually offers two authors: Bessie M. Johnson and Janice Dohm. While Ms. Dohm is credited as an author and editor of several other books, we can't connect Bessie M. Johnson, who was supposedly married to a Chicago millionaire, to any book at all (including this one).
More is known about the illustrator, George Lambert (1873-1930), who was a successful landscape painter but had also illustrated several picture books. Another fine example of his work is April Showers, which is also available online. You will notice that April Showers is written by Mabel Dearmer (1872-1915). According to the style of writing, we can believe that she (and not Bessie M. Johnson and Janice Dohm, as most sources on the internet claim) wrote Water Lilies as well.
If you are intrigued by water lilies, you may also enjoy exploring them in famous paintings by Claude Monet (1840-1926), among which we can find some of the most prized paintings ever, with examples being worth around one hundred million dollars!