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The Belated Kid

William Morris Hunt (American, 1824–1879)
1854–57

Medium/Technique Oil on canvas
Dimensions 137.79 x 98.42 cm (54 1/4 x 38 3/4 in.)
Credit Line Bequest of Miss Elizabeth Howes
Accession Number07.135
CollectionsAmericas
ClassificationsPaintings
Hunt began this monumental image of a peasant girl and her rescued kid about 1854, when he was working with the French realist painter Jean-François Millet in Barbizon, a village outside Paris. He finished it after returning home to Newport, Rhode Island, in 1857. It proved so popular when exhibited in the United States that Boston collector Peter Chardon Brooks (who on Hunt’s recommendation also became a great patron of Millet) commissioned a replica.
The painting clearly was inspired by Millet’s pictures of peasant children [17.1484], especially those depicting young girls diligently watching over one or two cows or sheep. In Hunt’s version of the subject, a kid that strayed and was found again is carried home by a pretty barefoot shepherdess. To add to the sentimental mood of the painting, Hunt shows a mother goat following them closely as though to express gratitude for the rescue. While Hunt’s image echoes Millet’s images of rural labor, it is considerably more romantic in its presentation of the innocence and goodness of these hardworking peasant children. The large scale of the figure is tempered by soft contours, delicate colors, and subdued lighting to create an image that is both noble and tender.


This text was adapted from Carol Troyen and Janet L. Comey, Amerikakaigakodomo no sekai [Children in American art], exh. cat. (Nagoya, Japan: Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 2007).

Provenance1857, James Davis. By 1879, Elizabeth Howes (probably b. 1826 - d. 1893), Salem, MA; 1893, life interest passed to her sister, Susan Burley Howes Cabot (b. 1822 - d. 1907), Boston; 1907, bequest of Elizabeth Howes to the MFA [see note]. (Accession Date: April 20, 1907)

NOTE: Elizabeth Howes bequeathed the painting to the MFA, with life interest to her sister. The bequest was fulfilled after the death of Mrs. Cabot.