(American 1818-1866)

Boys Playing Paw-Paw, circa 1839, oil on canvas, 28 x 36 in., reproduction gilt wood frame, 30-1/4 x 37-1/4 in.

Provenance: Private Collection, Ohio

Note: Thomas Burnham painted two known versions of both Boys Playing Paw-Paw and a related genre work, The Young Artist, one in horizontal and the other in vertical format. The two horizontal works share compositional elements with other genre works by Burnham, such as First State: Election Day, 1837. The blue linsey-woolsey farmer’s frock, as worn by the young black laborer, can be contrasted against the tailored jackets and caps worn by the white youths, clearly members of the burgeoning middle-class; both elements appear in The Young Artist, referred to above. He exhibited one version of Boys Playing Paw-Paw at the National Academy of Design, the Boston Athenaeum, and the Apollo Association between 1840- 1842, which is believed to be the vertical format version now in the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College.