2-982-582 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Spending a Sou" - painted by Miss Rebecca Solomons - from the Winter Exhibition, French Gallery, 1858. Engraving after a painting. 'Miss Rebecca Solomons [sic] has a very telling little picture in the Winter Exhibition, Pall-mall, entitled "Spending a Sou,"...It has obviously been studied from real life in the market place of some little town in the north of France. There sits the venerable fruitwoman, under her capacious umbrella of dubious plum-coloured cotton. Her wares have tempted a small child in quaint attire, and with close skullcap on her little round head, after the fashion of the country, and who is about to make a purchase, determined to have her sou's worth for her sou. Near at hand is the child's mother, who plies her distaff as she walks; and nearer the spectator the young lady's brother, whose hands dive hopelessly into his pockets, which, alas! are empty. This is of a class of works which are sure to find admirers amongst young and old'. From "Illustrated London News", 1858.