Oil on canvas, signed at lower left, framed.

Stretcher size 13 3/4 x 12 in.; Frame dimensions 19 1/2 x 17 1/2 in.

The Collection of the late Frances Stagg Nicholson Sanders, Raleigh, North Carolina

Revered for his sentimentalized depictions of young children, John George Brown's paintings are in many prominent public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, the Museum of Fine Arts - Boston, and the North Carolina Museum of Art.

The painting offered here is one of Brown's most popular genres, the rough and tumble shoeshine boy. Brown grew up in poverty in England and was particularly sensitive to the lives of tens of thousands of children living on the streets of New York City in the 19th century. This young boy, with the red, white and blue fabric tatters by his feet and backwards kepi style cap on his head, may reference the orphans left behind in the aftermath of the Civil War.

Minor stable craquelure.