The Blind Beggar

Bathed in sunlight, an attractive young woman in Dutch country dress leans from an open window in one corner of a vine-covered cottage. She reaches out to drop coins in the hat of a young man outside her window, who is wearing a patched and dirty tunic. He is soliciting charity on behalf of an elderly woman, who waits beside him in a wheeled, hand-drawn conveyance. A glimpse of a distant landscape is visible over the brick wall to the right. Although Alma-Tadema was only 20 when he painted this scene, he already shows in it the narrative skills that will bring him such success with his later re-creations of life in Greek and Roman antiquity. This genre scene was the artist's first major commission.

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Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Bernard N. Baker, Ingleside Estate, Catonsville, Maryland; Antonio Carozza, Catonsville, 1919, by purchase [in conjunction with the purchase of Baker's house and property]; Thomas A. Carozza [grandson], White Hall, 1954, by inheritance; Walters Art Museum, 2000, by gift.