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This painting is on deposit from a private collection.
Ceruti was a specialist in depicting poor people, labourers, cripples and beggars in life-size figures on large canvases. He composed his pictures in the pale tints of the dust and rags in which his mendicants, known as 'pitocchi,' dwelt. And for this strange speciality, Ceruti came to be called by the uncomplimentary nickname 'il pitocchetto', the 'little beggar.'
Ceruti often painted the seemingly countless boys who earned a meagre living as porters for hire in the city streets. The winters are cold in Brescia, near the Alps, a young boy has wrapped himself as warmly as possible, his buttonless jacket tied with a rope. He strides purposefully across an open space, not breaking his stride, but looks directly at us. In the background are seen the crumbling walls of a rustic hospice that provides shelter to the poor and invalid.
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