Marcellin Desboutin (French, 1823-1902)
Laughing Boy in a Working Shirt
Oil on canvas

Signed lower right M. Desboutin, in red. 9 x 7 inches (23 x 18 cm), the frame 13 x 11 inches (33 x 28 cm). Gilt cove frame. Good original condition, unlined.

The mouth is open. He is caught mid-word or mid-laugh, teeth showing, and the whole head is turned into the light.

The boy is shown half length against a grey green ground, his dark curly hair worked in loose masses that leave the weave showing through. He wears a loose white shirt with grey braces crossing the shoulders, laid in with a few broad strokes. The cheeks and the mouth carry the single warm note in the picture, laid on wet over the cooler flesh, and the eyes are set down in two dark strokes with no drawn outline anywhere.