Interior with Old Woman and Boy

Description Rather than recording the quaint, but impoverished circumstances of the Écouen villagers, Soyer records a scene of happy domesticity. A young child gazes inquisitively at his grandmother, who has fallen asleep with her glasses in her lap. Beside her is a cat lapping its food. On the floor are potential threats to this tranquil scene-a toy drum and drumsticks. A vase of flowers on the mantel adds a cheerful note to the rustically, but adequately furnished room.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
1/01/2002	Treatment	examined for exhibition; re-housed; mounted; other

Exhibitions

• Drawings by the Artists from the Ecouen School. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1993-1994.
• A Discerning Eye: Nineteenth-century Drawings and Watercolors. Academy Art Museum, Easton. 1998-1999.
• Botanical Delights: Floral Motifs in 19th-Century Art. Government House, Annapolis; Strathmore Hall Art Center, North Bethesda; Academy Art Museum, Easton. 1998-1999.
• The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma. 2005-2006.

Provenance William T. Walters, Baltimore, June 28, 1862, by purchase [George A. Lucas as agent]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894, by inheritance; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions "Paul Soyer 1862" in ink, lower left

Credit Acquired by William T. Walters, 1862