The Beggar Boy

Image credit: Falmouth Art Gallery

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Notes

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The subject matter owes a debt to Murillo and to the popularity of Gainsborough's rustic scenes, as well as to the portraits of children by Opie's friend and mentor Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Opie's innate sympathy for his subject, his unpretentious style and his early experience painting vagrants and country people in Cornwall raised this work far above the level of most of his contemporaries. Opie cleverly depicts the viewer's shadow partially cast over the sitter, creating an illusion of intimacy.

This picture shows why his reputation became so high in the 1780s, and adds weight to J. W. Scobell Armstrong's view that 'none of his maturer works as a portrait painter surpassed the best of his achievements during those years'.

Many experts consider this to be one of Opie's finest paintings.

Falmouth Art Gallery

Falmouth

Title

The Beggar Boy

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 91.3 x W 71.2 cm

Accession number

FAMAG:2004.16

Acquisition method

purchased with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council/Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund, the National Art Collections Fund, the Beecroft Bequest, Cornwall Heritage Trust and the Canterbury Auction Galleries, 2004

Work type

Painting

Normally on display at

Falmouth Art Gallery

Municipal Buildings, The Moor, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 2RT England

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