In these dreary grey days of winter not yet stirring into spring, let us look upon an idyllic scene

In these dreary grey days of winter not yet stirring into spring, let us look upon an idyllic scene of summer, think of the glorious Mediterranean sun on bare skin, the smell of herbs on a welcome breeze, hum of a thousand unseen insects in the air. Perhaps they can hear the sea, maybe the beach begins below their feet, close enough to the lapping waves that there’s a tang of windblown salt when they lick their lips.
These pictures allow us to imagine ourselves, for a moment not only in another time but another place; to think how it must have been to pose for these pictures, which still delight viewers over a century on.