John George Brown -The Card Trick [1880–89]

Brown's narratives maintain the explicitness of mid-nineteenth-century works, though he painted many of them much later. In this canvas, three white bootblacks watch a black youth perform a card trick. Brown (American, 1831–1913) ascribes street smarts and gamesman's skills to this clever character. One of the few American painters before 1900 to grapple with the subject of the urban poor, Brown specialized in sentimental depictions of industrious immigrants, especially street urchins who project optimism and good cheer despite the hardships of city life. These ragamuffins, counterparts of Horatio Alger's homeless fourteen-year-old bootblack Ragged Dick and other resourceful characters, flourished and inspired Brown until compulsory public education laws ended their enterprise.

[Oil on canvas mounted on panel, 66 x 78.7 cm]