The Vagrant

Although portraiture was mostly the preserve of the educated middle and upper classes, there was also a trend for artists such as Nathaniel Hone and Sampson Towgood Roche to pay beggars to sit as models for them. No doubt it would have been a welcome boost to their income and provided a comfortable interlude to begging on the streets.

Regrettably the identity of this vagrant is not recorded so his story is now lost to history. With his unkempt hair and beard, he is pictured, staff in hand, trudging through the countryside in search of alms and perhaps the odd job.

The portrait is set in a traditional papier-mâché frame with an acorn hanger.