BILLY AND TOMMY.

See also Billy and Tommy, sketch for.

Images: unattributed source.

Visible in photograph of 1923 exhibition, Manchester.

  • Title(s): Billy and Tommy (1923 exhibition catalogue, identity confirmed by 1923 exhibition photo); Little boy with a shetland pony (title at Christie’s 1992 auction, source: ArtPrice auction record).
  • Description: A young boy by the side of a Shetland pony, a tall pillar to their left against brickwork, rural background.
  • Media: Oil on canvas (ArtPrice auction record).
  • Dimensions: 227.3 x 129.6 cm (ArtPrice auction record).
  • Signature/date/other text: ‘A L S / 1917’ (visible in image); “Init. Dated lower left” (ArtPrice auction record).
  • History:
    • 1917 – According to ArtPrice auction record.
    • 1923 – Exhibited Manchester Art Gallery (1923 exhibition catalogue, visible in 1923 exhibition photo).
    • 1992 – Auctioned Christie’s, London, 12 Jun 1992, lot 243, “Little boy with a shetland pony, 1917 … Init. Dated lower left / Illustrated on page 187 of the catalog” (ArtPrice auction record).
    • Appears as a purchasable print on commercial web sites.
  • Location: ?

The frame in the top picture (taken from Montagna Mia) has been artificially added to give an impression of how the picture would have looked when originally hung. The picture regularly appears on commercial art reproduction web sites.

The Guardian, 7 Jul 1923: “… the portrait of a boy with a pony (13), – it is rarely indeed, except in the work of the Italian masters of the Cinqueceuto [the 1500s], that we find so free and expression of movement combined with a full sense of weight and solid form. And in the column at the right of this picture and the great stretch of sky in the background we have again the Italian spaciousness.”

Image: Netherlands Institute for Art History.

Page last updated 29 Sep 2025.