Street Singer and Child (1700s): Art, History and Details

Street Singer and Child (1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is John Opie (British, 1761–1807).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

John Opie's working-class roots made him sympathetic to the plight of the laborer. This painting demonstrates his interest in an honest portrayal of British street life, a sympathy rarely seen in the work of other British artists of his generation, who often presented lower classes more coldly. Much of Britain's population at this time was poor, but beggars and street vendors had a particularly low status. Street singers were often sellers of goods. By focusing the composition tightly on the woman and not including any wares, Opie makes the viewer recognize her humanity; moreover, he emphasizes the connection between mother and child. The singer is working to feed her baby, evoking sympathy from the viewer.

Object facts

• Title: Street Singer and Child
• Date: 1700s
• Creator attribution: John Opie (British, 1761–1807)
• Culture: England, 18th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 100 x 87.5 x 11 cm (39 3/8 x 34 7/16 x 4 5/16 in.); Unframed: 76.5 x 64.3 cm (30 1/8 x 25 5/16 in.)
• Collection: P - British before 1800
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1916.1030

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.
• "The Wade Collection." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 1 (1917): 3-12.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.