The Cobbler's Apprentice [SEP] creator
The Cobbler's Apprentice
The Cobbler's Apprentice is a painting by the American painter Frank Duveneck, painted in 1877. It hangs in the Taft Museum of Art of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The oil on canvas portrait measures and it is signed by the artist.
Duveneck painted "The Cobbler's Apprentice" in Munich, Germany, where at the time he was regarded as a leading American artist.
Description.
The subject of "The Cobbler's Apprentice" is a boy, shown three-
a godfather who treated him with little consistency. Gifford was sent in turn to work as a plough boy, a ship's boy, student, and cobbler's apprentice. Of these, Gifford cared only for the life of a student, and he continued to write verses as he learned the cobbler's trade. Gifford’s fortunes changed when his first poetical efforts came to the attention of an Ashburton surgeon, William Cookesley. Cookesley raised a subscription to have the boy's apprenticeship bought out and he returned to school.