1670 (ca.), Bartolome Esteban Murillo, Old Woman with a Boy -- Wallraf-Richartz Museum (Cologne)
From the museum label:
CHARISMATIC POVERTY
Child beggars and poor people were part of the street scene in Murillos's Seville. He portrays them life-size and in a picturesque manner. The old woman evidently worries that the boy and the dog will take away her plate of gruel. Laughing, the boy comments on her fears by appealing to the beholder. The old woman comes across as ridiculous. And yet she arouses our sympathy, recalling characters from the popular picaresque novels by the Spanish Baroque writer Cervantes. Murillo's genre pictures were an export hit. They were sold abroad in particular by Dutch traders active in Seville.
1670 (ca.), Bartolome Esteban Murillo, Old Woman with a Boy -- Wallraf-Richartz Museum (Cologne)
From the museum label:
CHARISMATIC POVERTY
Child beggars and poor people were part of the street scene in Murillos's Seville. He portrays them life-size and in a picturesque manner. The old woman evidently worries that the boy and the dog will take away her plate of gruel. Laughing, the boy comments on her fears by appealing to the beholder. The old woman comes across as ridiculous. And yet she arouses our sympathy, recalling characters from the popular picaresque novels by the Spanish Baroque writer Cervantes. Murillo's genre pictures were an export hit. They were sold abroad in particular by Dutch traders active in Seville.