1800
paint
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Boys Playing at Peg-top is a 1800 paint by Richard Morton Paye, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This painting shows boys playing with tops in a school cloister around 1800. Richard Morton Paye painted it during the Romanticism era. Tops were cheap and easy to make, but tricky to balance right. Boys loved them for play and competition. The cloister gave them a smooth stone floor to spin tops on. Check out the Victoria and Albert Museum next.
The painting depicts a group of children in the cloisters of Westminster School. In the center, a fair-haired boy in a white shirt and waistcoat with brown knee breeches releases a spinning top across the paved floor. To his right, another boy crouches with a larger top while conversing with a boy in a red coat leaning over him, while two additional boys stand by the wall, one in a teal suit and the other in brown. In the background, two seated girls in white dresses are visible, with the taller one wearing a blue-trimmed hat pinned up at one side.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Richard Morton Paye (1750–1820) was an important painter of the early English School and a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
See the richer artist pageYour cart is empty
Explore artworks →
