How you can use this image

This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).

Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.

The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.

Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.

Notes

Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.

This wooden painted figure standing alone is a boy holding an alphabet board without the letters 'J', 'U' or 'W'. It looks as if the figure has been cut out of a provincial Spanish portrait and then mounted on an ebonised wood base. These types of pictures are not really paintings but furniture and are called dummy boards or, to quote Vita Sackville-West, 'silent companions'. They were usually found greeting guests in the entrance halls of houses, or were used as firescreens.