On occasion, Johnson painted boys and girls together. Most notable were his scenes of street musicians. During the 1870s Italian immigrant children earned money for their families by playing musical instruments in the city streets; such children were known as “slaves of the harp” [See John E. Zucchi, Little Slaves of the Harp: Italian Child Street Musicians in Nineteenth-Century Paris, London, and New York (McGill-Queens University Press, 1992)]. —PH
Frick Art Reference Library Photoarchive files, Eastman Johnson, "Girl and Boy," b12032530, accessed April 12, 2021: "The girl has brown hair tied by a coral red ribbon. She wears a coral red skirt, a white blouse and a white apron. The boy has dark brown hair. His trousers are dark brown and his blouse is taupe. Gilt table, green leaves and pink roses on the table. The background is red brown and the right and the rest is yellow brown."
Hills, 2021: Baur nos. 104 (Girl and Boy) and 142 (Two Children) are likely the same work, and John I. H. Baur's cataloguing of them as two separate works may have been in error.
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