English School, A Young Piper, late 19th century

Child musicians in rustic dress were a favourite subject of late Victorian painting. Pictures like this hung in parlours across the country, painted by professionals and by accomplished amateurs.

A dark-haired youngster in a red-banded hat plays a short pipe with a flared bell. He wears a brown jacket over a red waistcoat and white shirt, with a white cloth gathered at his waist. Behind him a soft green landscape fades into a pale pink sky.

Oil on canvas. Signed indistinctly lower right, apparently ‘J. Gotts’. In a deep gilt composition frame with a reeded cove, a leaf-and-berry outer edge and a gilt slip.