“In the years following that period, the Benson family left Boston during the summers, traveling north. The family spent those warm months at a small frame house near a beach strewn with rocks. There was a small section of woods behind the house.
“OK, George. Hold still. Please. Good Eleanor,” he said.
Benson painted the “Children in the Woods”, which portrayed Eleanor and his son George cavorting in a clearing in the forest near the farm. His eldest daughter, the most patient model of his lifetime, was facing into the frame from left. George would be seated, seen in profile from the right.
“Hold still now.”
This was a major change in his motif and style…”