This early painting by Madox Brown dates from 1836 and was variously referred to as Fish Boy (account book), Italian Fisher Boy (1858) and The Fisher Boy (1865). The subject is not listed by Hueffer but is noted in the extant copy of part of the artist’s account book (private collection) when the background was finished at Kentish Town in 1858 for exhibition at Liverpool that year. At the Liverpool Academy, 1858, number 666 was titled Italian Fisher Boy and it was bought by W.D. Holt of the shipping family for 15 guineas (Liverpool Academy Purchase Books). Holt lent it to the artist’s own exhibition in Picadilly in 1865, number 40, where it appeared under the title of The Fisher Boy and the catalogue reads: 'The head and shoulders were painted in 1836 and not retouched. The background added in 1858.' Other early works dating from 1836 include Head of Flemish Fish Wife, which is untraced, and Blind Beggar and his Child for which a photograph exists.
W.D. Holt, purchased at the Liverpool Academy, 1858, number 666 for 15 guineas; by descent to: Mrs Geraldine Critchley; sold at: Bonhams London, November 29 1990, lot 115; sold to: Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries; sold to: Private collection
Liverpool Academy, 1858, number 666, London, 191 Picadilly, 1865, number 40 (lent by W.D. Holt) London, Piccadilly, The Exhibition of WORK, and other paintings by Ford Madox Brown, at the Gallery, 191 Piccadilly, March - June 1865, catalogue number 40
Ford Madox Brown, mss Acount Book, Subjects of Pictures and Drawings, (Cornell University Library, Violet Hunt papers, collection 4607) Ford Madox Brown, Accont Book II, page 1, Victoria & Albert Museum) Liverpool Academy Purchase Book, (Walker Art Gallery) Virginia Surtees, The Diary of Ford Madox Brown, New Haven & London, 1981, pages XIV, XV Edward Morris & Emma Roberts, The Liverpool Academy and Other Exhibitions of Contemporary Art in Liverpool 1774-1867, A History and Index of Artists Works Exhibited, 1998, pages 105 & 691 Mary Bennett, Ford Madox Brown A Catalogue Raisonné, volume II, pages 10-11, catalogue number A6, illustrated page 11