Roman Newsboys
Artist: Martin Johnson Heade (American, 1819-1904)
Date: 1848
Dimensions:
28 1/2 x 24 5/16 in. (72.5 x 61.7 cm)
Medium: oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott
Object number: 1953.68
Label Text:Best known for his evocative landscapes (see Hazy Day on the Marshes in Gallery 30B), Martin Johnson Heade’s Roman Newsboys is one of his only known scenes of everyday life (genre). Heade visited Rome in 1848 during clashes between the movement to unify Italy (the Risorgimento) and the secular government of the Roman States, headed by Pope Pius (Pio) IX. The Italian political atmosphere is the subject of Roman Newsboys.
The boys offer a pro-Risorgimento satirical newspaper to an approaching pedestrian, whose shadow appears at left. One boy wears a “dunce cap” with the name of the pope; the other wears a Greek cap, symbol of liberty. Graffiti on the wall includes a stick-figure cardinal and a caricature of the pope, while a poster declares support for Vincenzo Gioberti, leader of the Risorgimento. This painting was selected as a prize in a lottery sponsored by the Western Art Union of Cincinnati in 1850.
The boys offer a pro-Risorgimento satirical newspaper to an approaching pedestrian, whose shadow appears at left. One boy wears a “dunce cap” with the name of the pope; the other wears a Greek cap, symbol of liberty. Graffiti on the wall includes a stick-figure cardinal and a caricature of the pope, while a poster declares support for Vincenzo Gioberti, leader of the Risorgimento. This painting was selected as a prize in a lottery sponsored by the Western Art Union of Cincinnati in 1850.
On view
In Collection(s)