The Little Chimney Sweep

This watercolour was produced in 1808 and became a well known letterpress (illustration) for a ballad entitled 'The little chimney sweep' by Upton and Parke. In the ballad an affluent lady sees a chimney sweep in the street , weeping in a doorway, and subsequently finds out that he is her brother. In the work the Foundling Hospital is shown in the background where abandoned children were brought up and a baker's boy looks on.

Chimney sweep had acquired a romantic mystique following the publication of william Blake's poem in 1789 about them. This perception was later dispelled by Dickens and his descriptions of the conditions in which they worked.

Isaac Cruikshank (1756-1811) was the father of two prominent caricature artists, Isaac Robert and George. He was a watercolour artist but it was more lucrative for him to produce prints and engravings.