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Teasels were grown as a crop to raise the knap on cloth. The prickly nature of the seed heads and plants seems a somewhat improbable setting for two little girls in such fragile dress. It may be that the artist is making a point about the fragility of nature and transience of youth and beauty. The distant gazes and flowing hair of the girls are typical of the nineteenth-century Pre-Raphaelite movement. The artist, Cecil Leonard Burns was the first curator of the South London Gallery (from where the Southwark Art Collection originates) and principal of the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts between 1897 and 1899. This is one of 10 examples of his work in the collection and reflects Southwark’s large holdings of Arts and Crafts period material.