A Souvenir of Velazquez 

Sir John Everett Millais painted “A Souvenir of Velazquez”, a portrait of a young girl, holding a lemon. The lemon, innocent as it seems, is a visual echo resonating through time. It’s not merely a piece of fruit; it is a symbol loaded with meaning. This golden orb appears in Dutch still lifes as a symbol of wealth and the exotic, or, reaching further back, as the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden. Here, the child’s delicate grasp suggests a fleeting moment, an innocence confronted with the world’s temptations. This echoes in our collective memory. Perhaps it’s a nod to the transience of beauty, a memento mori masked in childhood’s guise. Millais stirs in us the poignant realization of time’s relentless march. This is more than a portrait, it is a meditation on the past.