Ethel Nash lived in Wismer, a tiny community at a crossroads in Bucks County of southeast Pennsylvania.

The community was named for members of the Wismer family, Mennonite refugees who emigrated from Germany in 1750.

Wismer is almost nine miles north of Doylestown, and about three miles west of the Delaware River and the border of New Jersey. 

https://www.livingplaces.com/PA/Bucks_County/Plumstead_Township/Wismer.html

 Sometime around 1910, Ethel was given an art postcard.

The postcard was not mailed, but does bear an address.

The charming work is not attributed to an artist, nor is the postcard publisher identified.

The warm painting also lacks a title.

On the face, a sturdy young man is holding hands with a pretty young woman who maintains a demure downward gaze.

The budding romance, however, is not the source of dramatic tension in the work.

Behind the young man stands a child.  

The girl looks bewildered and hesitant.

In her hand, the child holds carelessly her doll.

To me, the scene suggests that the girl does not understand why her big brother is no longer available to play with her.

A similar scene may play out in the lives of many children who are devoted to their older siblings.

The viewer knows “the way of the world” – that the brother will grow inevitably toward adult relationships, and that the child will find other companionship and interests.

Nevertheless, we may empathize with the child’s confusion as one beloved figure of her childhood is being incorporated into a new constellation of relationships.

(It is possible that the ship in the background is meant to suggest that the young man is about to depart – and that this is a parting for the young woman and for the child.

The young man’s kerchief and cap might indicate that he is about to embark on a nautical adventure as a sailor.