Japanese woodblock prints were an
influence on Pictorialism, especially those produced during the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries. Detail was suppressed in favor of abstract
graphic design, depicted personages were often symbolic of more universal
themes, and inscriptions played a significant part in the overall structure. In
all of these respects, this photogravure is derived from that tradition, albeit
with certain Western modifications, especially those articulated by J.A.M. Whistler.

Clarence H. White was a conscientious
student of art history and a widely respected teacher of photography. In 1914
he opened the Clarence H. White School of Photography in New York City and
eventually was to count among his pupils Doris Ulmann, Paul Outerbridge, and
Dorothea

Lange.

The Beatty children were photographed
two years before this photogravure was published in Camera Work. It and
other White photogravures were accompanied by an article written by the
children's father, John Wesley Beatty, who at one time was associated with the
Carnegie Institute. The candor displayed by the children and the intimacy of
their pose, coupled with the fact that Beatty's piece was titled "Clarence
H. White: An Appreciation," suggest the two men knew each other on more than
a perfunctory basis.