Study for "An Aragonese Smuggler"

This is a preparatory study for a large-scale, full-length composition of a peasant boy stealing a drink from a pitcher. William Turner Dannat trained in Munich and later in Paris, drawing inspiration from 17th-century Spanish masters like Diego Velázquez, as did his teachers, including the Hungarian painter Mihály Munkácsy. Dannat’s realist style, characterized by loose, expressive brushstrokes, is evident in both this study and in the final painting. The French government purchased An Aragonese Smuggler (1883; Château de Blérancourt) when it was first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1883. This study is one of the Art Institute’s earliest acquisitions, entering the collection in 1887.