'The Singing Minstrel', Billy Button (b.c.1778–1838)
'The Singing Minstrel', Billy Button (b.c.1778–1838)

Image credit: Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives

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Billy Button was well known in the streets of Bristol where he sang and danced barefoot. He was a wanderer, most often in his native Midlands, and wore a coat heavily decorated with buttons. Two of his favourite songs are at the bottom of the painting: 'I've Been Roaming' and 'The Oyster Girl'. The artist John Dempsey was also itinerant, working throughout the country, but he usually painted silhouette and miniature portraits. In the early 1840s he had a studio in the Lower Arcade in Bristol.

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery

Bristol

Title

'The Singing Minstrel', Billy Button (b.c.1778–1838)

Date

c.1830

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 123.5 x W 73 cm

Accession number

K1796

Acquisition method

gift from Mr W. D. Fripp, 1948

Work type

Painting

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