3-028-519 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Subtraction," by J. Mahoney, 1870. 'Mr. Mahony is one of a group of young figure-painters of merit, who in late years have materially strengthened the Junior Water-Colour Society, but whose works, while highly finished, are usually so modest in scale that they are very apt to be overlooked on a hasty inspection. A drawing the size of our Engraving is not calculated to compel the attention of the hasty or superficial observer. Size, however, is not a measure of merit in art; and small as is this drawing, its workmanship is complete and satisfactory, and would, therefore, admit of indefinite enlargement...Two boys are on their way to school through winter's snow - "Creeping like snail unwilling to school." They are both in arrear with the day's task; they are both (though one is much older than the other) absorbed in the mysteries of "Subtraction"; so, at least, the title would lead us to suppose. But, as often happens, the younger boy is the greater mathematician. He relies upon his own powers of computation. Not so, however, with his companion; he is fain to borrow furtively the results of his young friend's calculations. Hence a compound or complex form of "Subtraction"; hence the double entendre of the title'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.