(Children at Play)
Anonymous
Found 06/2007, Salvation Army (Peyton Gin and 183)

The anonymous artist of (Children) combines a playful setting (an older child, perhaps a sister, pulling a younger in a wooden wagon) with a level of tragedy usually found in medieval Christ imagery.

The image of the sister figure is utterly faceless. Her clothing carries more detail than her own features, a two-dimensional blank. Her arm, twisted at an awkward angle, hangs dejectedly in a palm-up position that seems to signify surrender.

Behind her, and rendered with much more detail, the strangely incomplete passenger.  His mouth is downturned, an expression perhaps of disgust. He seems injured or deformed, body missing at the waist down.

Perspective and the unusual dimensionality of the sister figure add extra weight to her tragedy. She and her wagon are pressed close to the fence. Rather than pulling her passenger (there is no handle on this wagon, though it is implied), she seems about to collapse into the fence, even merge with it. Her lines, particularly those of her shoes and hat, fade into the colors of the background; in her absence, the stronger angles and circles of the child and his wagon stand out against the world. He alone will dominate the painting.