The Crossing Sweeper, from "The Art Journal," opposite p. 64
Engraver Charles William Sharpe British
After William Powell Frith British
Publisher Virtue & Co. British
Not on view
Sharpe's engraving reproduces a small painting, from 1858 (Museum of London) that focuses on a familiar sight in large cities, especially London, where boys worked as crossing sweepers to assist a safe passage across busy and filthy streets. Frith painted the contemporary subject while he worked on his large masterpiece "The Derby Day" (1856–58; Tate, London). He later admitted that the street scene was a "stopgap", intended to provide a ready income during the lengthy production of the larger work. The artist wrote that, "I began to paint a small picture of a lady waiting to cross a [London] street, with a little boy crossing-sweeper besieging her in the usual fashion". The subject proved popular and the artist made at least four other versions.
