1. MFA VTS: Depictions of Leisure through time in Art
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

2. Lesson 1

3. What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?
Untitled (Children playing with their father)
1959
Imogen Cunningham, American, 1883–1976
Dimensions
Image/Sheet: 19.2 x 18.7 cm (7 9/16 x 7 3/8 in.) Mount: 36.8 x 29.2 cm (14 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.)
Accession Number
Medium or Technique
Photograph, gelatin silver print

4. What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?
Baseball on the Beach; frontispiece illustration for Indoor and Outdoor Games (Naigai yûgi hô), vol. 30 of the series The Everyday Encyclopedia (Nichiyô hyakka zensho)
1898 (Meiji 31)
Tomioka Eisen, Japanese, 1864–1905
Medium
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Classification
Prints
Accession Number

5. What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?
Girl Skipping Rope
1943 Ben Shahn (American (born in Lithuania), 1898–1969)
Dimensions
40.32 x cm (15 7/8 x 23 7/8 in.)
Accession Number
Medium or Technique
Tempera on board

6. Lesson 2

7. What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?
Children
Belgian about 1900 Artist Henri Meunier (Belgian, 1873–1922), Publisher O. De Rycker & Mendel (Belgian)
Dimensions
Horizontal: Overall: 8.9 x 14 cm (3 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.)
Accession Number
Medium or Technique
Color lithograph with metallic pigment on card stock

8. What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?
Reading Lesson
1865 Auguste Toulmouche (French, 1829–1890)
Dimensions
36.5 x 27.6 cm (14 3/8 x 10 7/8 in.)
Accession Number
24.1
Medium or Technique
Oil on canvas

9. What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?
The Tea
Le Thé
about 1880 Mary Stevenson Cassatt (American, 1844–1926)
Catalogue Raisonné
Breeskin 78
Dimensions
64.77 x cm (25 1/2 x 36 1/4 in.)
Accession Number
42.178
Medium or Technique
Oil on canvas

10. Lesson 3

11. What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?
Children at Play: Kite-flying Contest (Kodomo asobi tako-age kurabe)
「子供遊凧あげくらべ」
Japanese Edo period 1865 (Genji 2/Keiô 1), 10th month Artist Utagawa Yoshitora (Japanese, active about 1836–1887), Publisher Enshûya Hikobei (Japanese), Blockcutter Matsushima Masakichi (Hori Masa) (Japanese)
Dimensions
Vertical ôban triptych
Accession Number
a-c
Medium or Technique
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper

12. What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?
Children on the Seashore, Guernsey
Inscription
Stamped, lower right: Renoir
Provenance
Sold by the estate of the artist to the Galérie Barbazanges, Paris (stock no ) [see note 1]; sold by Barbazanges to Howard Young Galleries, New York (stock no. 2020) [see note 2]; November 6, 1922, sold by Howard Young to John Taylor Spaulding (b d. 1948), Boston; 1948, bequest of John Taylor Spaulding to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 3, 1948) NOTES: [1] According to a label on the reverse of the painting. [2] According to a letter from Howard Young to Angelica Rudenstine of the MFA (December 8, 1961).
Credit Line
Bequest of John T. Spaulding
about 1883
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French, 1841–1919
Dimensions
91.4 x 66.4 cm (36 x 26 1/8 in.)
Accession Number
48.594
Medium or Technique
Oil on canvas

13. What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?
Chinese Children Playing in Snow
唐子の雪遊び
Japanese Edo period Artist Utagawa Kunitora (Japanese, active early 19th century), Publisher Yamamotoya Heikichi (Eikyûdô) (Japanese)
Dimensions
Horizontal ôban; 24.6 x 37.1 cm (9 11/16 x 14 5/8 in.)
Accession Number
Medium or Technique
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper

14. Lesson 4

15. What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?
Rustic Dance After a Sleigh Ride
1830 William Sidney Mount (American, 1807–1868)
Dimensions
56.2 x 68.9 cm (22 1/8 x 27 1/8 in.)
Accession Number
48.458
Medium or Technique
Oil on canvas

16. What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?
Cocktails
about 1926 Archibald Motley (American, 1891–1981)
Dimensions
81.3 x cm (32 x 40 in.)
Accession Number
Medium or Technique
Oil on canvas

17. What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?
Dance at Bougival
1883
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French, 1841–1919
Dimensions
181.9 x 98.1 cm (71 5/8 x 38 5/8 in.)
Medium
Oil on canvas
Classification
Paintings
Accession Number
37.375

18. Lesson 5

19. What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?
Clover
1934
Tateishi Harumi, Japanese, 1906–1994
Dimensions
Image: 180 x 199 cm (70 7/8 x 78 3/8 in.)
Medium
Panel; ink and color on paper
Classification
Paintings
Accession Number
2004

20. What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?
The Boys
1990 Tina Barney (American, born in 1945)
Dimensions
121.9 x cm (48 x 60 in.)
Accession Number
Medium or Technique
Photograph, chromogenic print (Ektacolor)

21. What is going on in this image?
What do you see that makes you say that?
What more can we find?
Title: Tuckered Out —The Shoeshine Boy Date: about 1888
By: John George Brown
American (born in England), 1831–1913
Object Number: 64.467
Status: Not On View
Dimensions: 61.59 x cm (24 1/4 x 16 1/8 in.) Medium: Oil on canvas Credit Line: Bequest of Maxim Karolik Web Description: John George Brown made childhood his primary subject. At first he painted middle-class country children. In the 1870s, he switched to poor city children, who populated urban streets in increasing numbers as immigrant and rural families seeking jobs flocked to the cities. Brown became known for his depiction of bootblacks, the street urchins who made a few pennies by polishing shoes. As in "Tuckered Out-The Shoeshine Boy," he showed them in tattered clothing but clean, well-fed, and healthy. Brown's paintings allowed his patrons (mostly successful businessmen) to disregard the wretched conditions in which these children lived. The artist presented the bootblacks as young entrepreneurs about to begin their rags-to-riches climb in American society.  Paintings like this were the pictorial equivalent of the immensely popular "Ragged Dick" stories, written in the late nineteenth century by New York novelist Horatio Alger.  In Alger's stories, disadvantaged children exhibit pluck and determination that enables them to rise from horrible poverty to wealth and respectability. Born in England, Brown came to New York in 1853, working in a glass factory and painting portraits before turning to genre paintings. He served as vice president of the National Academy of Design, to which he had been elected in Brown's sentimental images of poor but pretty children earned him many patrons eager to overlook the ravages of urban poverty, and he became a wealthy man.
This text was adapted from Carol Troyen and Janet Comey, "Children in American Art" (Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 2007, in Japanese). Provenance: The artist; Maxim Karolik, Newport, R.I.; to MFA, 1964, bequest of Maxim Karolik.