Young boys have been a traditional staples of genre painting. To patrons of art during the mid-nineteenth century these youths recalled memories of their own growing years in which innocence was becoming more and more modified by mischievous cunning. —PH
American Art Association sale catalogue, 1903: "This is a charming example of Johnson's domestic genre, natural and full of character; moreover, an artist's interpretation of the subject, harmonious in tone and excellent in craftsmanship. In the corner of a room with drab-olive walls, a little boy is seated on a high, rush-bottomed stool. He has one hand in the pocket of his greenish suit and another up to his mouth, looking meanwhile out of the edge of his eye, half rebelliously, half shyly. With the naïveté of the figure a picturesqueness of composition is united through the accessories introduced. On the wall to the right hang a gray and a blue military cloak and alongside them a brown one; while on the opposite wall is a bunch of accoutrements. An open book lies upon the floor."