Description: THE NEGLIGENT BOY Artist: W. Mulready ____________ Engraver: . J. De Mare Note: the title in the table above is printed below the engraving CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE 19th CENTURY ANTIQUE PRINTS LIKE THIS ONE!! PRINT DATE: This print was printed in 1868; it is not a modern reproduction in any way. PRINT SIZE: Overall print size is 7 1/2 inches by 10 1/2 inches including white borders, actual scene is 8 inches by 9 3/4 inches. PRINT CONDITION: Condition is excellent. Bright and clean. Blank on reverse. Paper is quality woven rag stock paper. SHIPPING: Buyer to pay shipping, domestic orders receives priority mail, international orders receive regular air mail unless otherwise asked for. We take a variety of payment options, more payment details will be in our email after auction close. We pack properly to protect your item! FROM THE ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: Mulready was accustomed to say, even towards the close of his career, that he had been a student all his life. In making this acknowledgment, we may be sure that he did not intend to limit it to the technicalities of Art-to drawing, composition, and color, which are the constituent parts of a picture; all these we know, by results, he had studied most assiduously, and to good purpose. But he also meant to imply that he had been always a student of human nature in those special phases which it was his province, or his pleasure, to delineate. We are quite certain that no group of mischievous schoolboys, or idle gamins of the streets, ever came across his path in his daily walks without becoming the object of a close scrutiny in their actions, tempers, countenances, and dress; and if he did not sketch some of them from the life, he carried home with him recollections and ideas which he afterwards turned to good account. Mulready may or may not have been, by nature, of a humorous disposition; but he certainly was not unobservant of the ludicrous in others, and knew how to make the best use of what he saw. What a serio-comic story there is in the Negligent Boy,' whose love for a game of marbles has induced him to forego his infantile charge that he might join in the sport! The cries of the baby have brought out its mother, a woman evidently with a strong arm and a strong will; her very attitude is characteristic of her fiery disposition, to say nothing of the thick cord held in her hand for the chastisement of the transgressor. The young urchin has, before this, doubtless felt the weight of her anger, and, naturally enough, shrinks from the prospect of another encounter with the Amazon of the village, whose reproaches and threats terrify him, as he stands with eyes and mouth open gazing at the unwelcome and probably unexpected vision, and realizing with quick perception what is to follow. Behind him is one of his companions in the game, but not in guilt; and yet he seems as if half afraid of being a sharer in the punishment to be meted out, and would fain make the "executioner" believe that he never handled a "taw" in his life. The face of this boy, something between innocence and fear, is inimitable. Not so is that of the youngster in his rear, who, in the full assurance that he is far enough off to be out of harm's way, makes merry at the cost of the certain victim; while their associate, knuckle down and ready for action, looks up as if to deprecate the interruption to the game. The innocent cause of all the disturbance-the young child-is the very embodiment of "uncomfortableness." The whole of the dramatis personae are skillfully grouped in a kind of framework, formed by the old-fashioned cottages on the left, and some noble trees on the right, which throw their branches arch-wise to the opposite side. The date of the painting is unknown to us, but it is evidently one of the artist's earlier time. The owner, Mr. Holdsworth, who has kindly permitted us to engrave it, may congratulate himself on possessing a capital example of one of England's most esteemed painters-Mulready. BIOGRAPHY OF ARTIST: William Mulready was born in Ennis on April 1st, 1786. His family moved to Dublin within a year or so of his birth and in 1792 again moved to London, where the Mulready household resided at Compton Street, Soho, where his father continued his trade as a leather-breeches maker. If William had any brothers or sisters they must have died at a young age as there is no mention of them later. For a child of his circumstances, young William received a very thorough education before he undertook serious introductions in artistic matters. Mulready's talent was cultivated initially by the painter John Graham, and then by the sculptor Thomas Banks, so that, at the age of fourteen, he was admitted as a student to the Royal Academy School in 1800. Coming under the influence of William John Varley, he acted as a student-tutor to some other young hopefuls in the school that Varley ran at his home. It was there that Mulready met and quickly married Varley's sister Elizabeth. However, the marriage was not to last: the couple parted in 1808 and never lived together again. Mulready's early pictures were mostly landscape, close in style to those of Constable, and close in subject matter also. His well-known "Landscape with Cottages" is typical of that time. Later he turned to subject painting in which he was to excel. Depictions of simple incidents or scenes from everyday life of village people were what he mainly dealt with. He was highly successful producing pictures which had an obvious appeal inVictorian times and among his best known works are "Idle Boys", "The Farriers Shop" and "The Last Inn". In 1815 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy being only 31 years of age and now accepted by his peers as a worthy representative of that prestigious body. He was also honoured in France being given the Legion of Honour for paintings he sent to the Paris International Exhibition of 1815. As a book illustrator he achieved certain fame, particularly through his drawings of textures for an edition of Goldsmith's "The Vicar of Wakefield". Mulready was slow, careful and meticulous in his approach to art and often made many perparatory sketches before committing himself to a final canvas. It is estimated that his output rarely exceeded more than two or three pictures a year. William Mulready died on the 7th of July, 1863 in Bayswater, London, and is buried in Kensal Green cemetary where a monument to his memory was erected by his friends. Please note: the terms used in our auctions for engraving, etching, lithograph, plate, photogravure etc. are ALL prints on paper, and NOT blocks of steel or wood or any other material. "ENGRAVINGS", the term commonly used for these paper prints, were the most common method in the 1700s and 1800s for illustrating old books, and these paper prints or "engravings" were created by the intaglio process of etching the negative of the image into a block of steel, copper, wood etc, and then when inked and pressed onto paper, a print image was created. These prints or engravings were usually inserted into books, although many were also printed and issued as loose stand alone lithographs. They often had a tissue guard or onion skin frontis to protect them from transferring their ink to the opposite page and were usually on much thicker quality woven rag stock paper than the regular prints. So this auction is for an antique paper print(s), probably from an old book, of very high quality and usually on very thick rag stock paper. A RARE FIND! AND GREAT DECORATION FOR YOUR OFFICE OR HOME WALL.
Price: 8.79 USD
Location: New Providence, New Jersey
End Time: 2025-02-01T15:18:39.000Z
Shipping Cost: 7.95 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Restocking Fee: No
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Original/Reproduction: Original Print
Print Type: Engraving
Date of Creation: 1800-1899
Material: Engraving
Type: Print
