He had insisted on dusting their shoes
Date1904
Artist
Anna Whelan Betts
(American painter, illustrator, 1873–1959)
Illustration Citation"Ben Zoni's Matinee," by Joseph Blethen, in McClure's Magazine, May 1904
MediumCharcoal and pastel on illustration board
Dimensionssheet (board): 23 9/16 × 14 9/16 in. (59.8 × 37 cm)
frame: 29 1/2 × 17 1/4 in. (74.9 × 43.8 cm)
mat: 28 × 17 in. (71.1 × 43.2 cm)
frame: 29 1/2 × 17 1/4 in. (74.9 × 43.8 cm)
mat: 28 × 17 in. (71.1 × 43.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of Stafford Good, 1939
Object number1939-1
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextIn this story, the young man in the foreground works for a business firm. To impress his friends, he gives tours of the opulent offices while his employer is absent. Here, he dusts the shoes of the visitors, so that his boss will not find any evidence of the illicit tours.After art training at the Pennsylvania Academy of FineArt and in Paris, Anna Whelan Betts studied with Howard Pyle and enjoyed a successful career as an illustrator until the mid-1920s, when failing vision caused her to retire.
