The Boy with the Palette is a 1911 oil on canvas painting by Australian artist Violet Teague. The painting depicts a boy, wearing a roll-neck sweater and knickerbockers, holding a palette.
Exhibition The work was exhibited in the Victorian Artists Society in Melbourne in 1911 where a correspondent for The Age described it as "one of the most strikingly effective things in the exhibition."
After a further exhibition in Sydney, Teague sent the painting to Paris to be exhibited at the Old Salon in Paris in 1914, where it arrived too late to be admitted. The work was stored in Paris for the duration of World War I, finally exhibited in 1920. Teague's friend and fellow artist Rupert Bunny wrote to Teague from Paris, noting the work as "one of the best things there, and I am quite excited by it". The work was awarded a silver medal, erroneously made out to "Monsieur Teague", which the artist had corrected. Writing about the Old Salon exhibition, art historian Joan Kerr queried whether the judges erred because they preferred to "acknowledge excellence in a male rather than a female artist". The following year it was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Reaction
The work reveals inspiration from Édouard Manet's The Fifer (1866), a painting of a young musician.
Subject The subject was Theo Scharf, a 12 year old artist and musician, who Teague was instructing in print making.
Provenance The painting remained with Teague and her famility until 1976 when it was gifted to the National Gallery of Australia. It remains in its collection.
References