Embroidered cap with the handwritten line: When I’m Dreaming, I’m Growing written by Montini’s sibling, Emilia when she was six years old accompanied with a face drawing made by Montini’s three year old sibling, Anton Raphaël. The text could be read quite literally as a child saying that when they are dreaming (sleeping), they are growing (becoming older) but it could also be read as sentence about a dream that has something that grows within it (like a plant, hair, nails) representing, this could a developing, maturing, or slowly improving self. Clear forward progress being made. The drawing could be viewed as a child’s drawing of a face - a circle with two lines representing a neck, or legs or alternatively the circle could be a representation of the world - the two inner circles as the moon and the sun and the lines of the nose and the mouth as a clipper ship. Throughout his life Montini was obsessed with clipper ships and they represent a metaphor for his longing to his father, Leszek Monotowski.
CLIPPER SHIPS (1910)
By Matt Montini
Me and my dad make models of clipper ships
I like clipper ships because they are fast
Clipper ships sail the ocean
Clipper ships never sail on rivers or lakes
Clipper ships have lots of sails and are made out of wood
