| Work...the ragged wretch |
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Madox-Brown put this figure in the painting to show a flower seller who has come in to the town from the country. Although the figure looks like a woman at first sight, a closer look shows him to be a man. |
The Artist Wrote...."Next in value of significance to these, is the ragged wretch who has never been taught to work; with his restless gleaming eyes, he doubts and despairs of everyone. But for a certain effeminate gentleness of disposition and a love of nature, he might have been a burglar! He lives in Flower and Dean Street, where the policemen walk two and two, and the worst cut-throats surround him, but he is harmless; and before the dawn you may see him miles out in the country, collecting his wild weeds and singular plants to awaken interest, and perhaps find a purchaser in some sprouting botanist. When
exhausted he will return to his den, his creel of flowers
then rests in an open court-yard, the thoroughfare for
the crowded irunates of this haunt of vice, and played in
by mischievous boys, yet the basket rarely gets
interfered with, unless through the unconscious lurch of
some drunkard. The bread-winning implements are sacred
with the very poor". |