Childhood Sweethearts 

Frederick Morgan, around the turn of the century, captured this sweet scene with oil on canvas. Notice how the children exchange gifts: berries offered with a beaming face, flowers selected from a wicker basket. These simple tokens echo ancient rituals of courtship. We find similar offerings in Roman frescoes, where garlands of flowers symbolize love and fertility. The exchange, seen across time, isn't just about beauty. Consider the red of the berries: a color deeply rooted in our psyche, signifying vitality, passion, and even sacrifice. This color stirs primal emotions and can be seen in religious paintings to ignite fervent devotion in the viewer. In this artwork, the children's innocent offering mirrors our complex desire for connection, resonating with our deepest memories of affection. The motif of the flower and fruit exchange surfaces again and again, adapted, reinterpreted, and always carrying a fragment of its original weight.