Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 'A Peasant Boy leaning on a Sill', about 1675-80

A Peasant Boy leaning on a Sill

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Not on display

About the work

Overview

This is the type of picture for which Murillo is best known. With poverty becoming an ever-growing problem in seventeenth-century Seville, Murillo specialised in painting beggar boys and street children with extraordinary humanity. The boy’s expression and his relaxed pose show him to be in high spirits; apart from his ragged clothes there’s nothing to indicate the harsh realities of poverty.

The boy is bathed in naturalistic daylight. Murillo suggests the form of his earlobes and hands with quick, lively brushstrokes. The sketch-like appearance of the shadows and background contrasts with the thicker layers of paint in the clothing, especially the white shirt draped round the boy’s shoulder.

In-depth

A peasant boy leans on a chipped stone block or sill and looks towards something – or someone – that makes him smile. This painting once had a companion picture, A Girl Raising her Veil (now in a private collection), with which it remained until 1806. The two compositions were clearly conceived together: the boy, leaning forward on his elbows, reveals his bare right shoulder while the girl, turning away but glancing back towards him, lifts her veil coyly and exposes her left shoulder. Their exchange is flirtatious, as if imitating more adult behaviour.

This is the type of picture for which Murillo is best known. With poverty becoming an ever-growing problem in seventeenth-century Seville, where the artist spent his entire career, Murillo specialised in painting beggar boys and street children with extraordinary humanity. The boy’s expression and his relaxed pose show him to be in high spirits; apart from his ragged clothes there is nothing to suggest the harsh realities of poverty.

Although the boy here is very lifelike, this is not a portrait. It is a genre painting that provides a momentary glimpse of everyday life in Seville. The street children portrayed by Murillo were also the subject of popular picaresque novels; this genre, its name derived from the Spanish word for rogue or rascal (pícaro), focused on the rebellious adventures of a penniless character. The most well-known story was that of the anti-hero Lazarillo de Tormes, a young beggar who was always on the move, surviving on casual work or pickpocketing.

As well as looking at contemporary literary sources, Murillo may have turned to seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish paintings for inspiration in painting his scenes of everyday life. Murillo never actually left Spain but he would have seen these paintings (or engravings after them) in the homes of his patrons in Seville, some of whom were merchants who originated from northern Europe. In particular Nicolás Omazur, a wealthy Flemish silk merchant who had settled in Seville in 1669 and became one of Murillo’s closest friends and patrons, probably encouraged and personally shared the artist’s interest in painting everyday life.

This painting was made by Murillo late in his career, in about 1675–80, and demonstrates the artist’s confidence in handling paint. Murillo suggests the form of the boy’s earlobes and hands with quick, lively brushstrokes. The sketch-like appearance of the shadows and background contrasts with the thicker layers of paint in the clothing, especially the white shirt draped around the boy’s shoulder.

Key facts

Details

Full title: A Peasant Boy leaning on a Sill
Artist: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Artist dates: 1617 - 1682
Date made: about 1675-80
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 52 × 38.5 cm
Acquisition credit: Presented by M.M. Zachary, 1826
Inventory number: NG74
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 17th-century Spanish Frame

Provenance

Possibly in the Comtesse de Verrue sale, Paris, 27 March and 29 April, 1737 (2nd part, lot 66), and the Randon de Boisset sale, Paris, 27 February sqq. 1777 (lot 19; 3000 francs the pair), the latter bought by Paillet. It was certainly in the Marquis of Lansdowne sale, London, 19/20 March, 1806 (2nd day, lot 50; £115 10sh.). Exhibited British Institution, 1821 (no. 96), lent by M. Zachary; presented by M. M. Zachary, 1826. Arts Council Spanish Paintings Exhibition, 1947 (no. 23).

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised by Allan Braham, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School’, London 1988; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2017

Murillo: The Self-Portraits

The Frick Collection

1 November 2017 - 11 February 2018

The National Gallery (London)

28 February 2018 - 21 May 2018
2018

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1618-2017)

Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla

29 November 2018 - 17 March 2019
2020

Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London

The National Museum of Western Art

18 June 2020 - 18 October 2020

The National Museum of Art

3 November 2020 - 31 January 2021
2021

Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London

National Gallery of Australia

5 March 2021 - 14 June 2021
2022

Murillo: From Heaven to Earth

Kimbell Art Museum

18 September 2022 - 29 January 2023

Bibliography

1806

Peter Coxe, Burrell, and Foster, The Catalogue of All that Well-Known Valuable Collection of Capital Paintings: The Property of the Late Most Noble the Marquis of Lansdowne, Which have Long been Considered as One of the Great Ornaments of Lansdowne House, London, 19 March 1806 - 20 March 1806
1948

M.S. Soria, 'Murillo's Boy and Girl, Companion Pieces?', The Burlington Magazine, XC/538, 1948, pp. 20-2
1952

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School, London 1952
1970

N. MacLaren and A. Braham, The Spanish School, 2nd edn, London 1970
1973

B. Scott, 'The Comtesse de Verrue. A Lover of Dutch and Flemish Art', Apollo, XCVII/131, 1973, pp. 20-4
1978

J.A. Gaya Nuño, L'opera completa di Murillo, Milan 1978
1981

D.A. Íñiguez, Murillo. Su vida, su arte, su obra, Madrid 1981
1982

M.B. Mena Marqués and E. Valdivieso, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo 1617-1682 (exh. cat. Museo Nacional del Prado, 8 October - 12 December 1982; Royal Academy of Arts, 15 January - 27 March 1983), Madrid 1982
1983

M. Helston, Spanish and Later Italian Paintings, London 1983
1987

E. Harris, 'Velásquez and Murillo in Nineteenth Century Britain: An Approach Through Prints', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, L, 1987, pp. 148-59
1988

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Allan Braham, National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1988
1989

M. de los S. García Felguera, La fortuna de Murillo (1682-1900), Seville 1989
1990

V.I. Stoichita, 'Der Quijote-Effekt: Bild und Wirklichkeit im 17. Jahrhundert unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Murillos Oeuvre', in H. Korner (ed.), Die Trauben des Zeuxis: Formen künstlerischer Wirklichkeitsaneigung, Zürich 1990, pp. 105-39
1995

V.I. Stoichita, Efectul Don Quijote. Repere pentru o hermeneutica a imaginarului european, Bucharest 1995
1996

J. Edwards, Alexandre-Joseph Paillet: Expert et marchand de tableaux à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, Paris 1996
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2001

X. Brooke and P. Cherry, Murillo: Scenes of Childhood (exh. cat. Dulwich Picture Gallery, 14 February - 13 May 2001; Alte Pinakothek, 23 May - 26 August 2001), London 2001
2004

J. Portús et al., The Spanish Portrait from El Greco to Picasso (exh. cat. Museo Nacional del Prado, 20 October 2004 - 6 February 2005), London 2004
2005

J.-L. Augé, Murillo: Peintre de la douceur, Dossier de l'art 115, Dijon 005

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

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