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Portrait of a Big-fingered Boy
Pen and ink, 8 x 6 inches, 2004
This is not a portrait any run-of-the-mill, garden-variety big-fingered boy — no, it is Joe, the Big-fingered Boy. One must admit that was not a very inventive stage name, but it was certainly descriptive. Joe and his over-sized digits graced sideshows at the turn of the twentieth century. According to author Max Rusid, Joe was a performer with the
Colonel Cummings Wild West Show during the 1906 season.
My portrait of Joe was inspired by one of his pitchcards and Sandro Botticelli's late fifteenth-century
painting, Portrait of a Youth in the collection of the National Gallery (Washington D.C.).
[To purchase this drawing, please contact
Stanek Gallery
720 North 5th Street, Philadelphia PA 19123]
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All Images and Text © James G. Mundie 2004 - 2023
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