John George Brown was one of the most popular American genre painters of the late 19th century. This is a fine example of the theme for which Brown became best known—the entrepreneurial young New York City bootblack. Brown’s bootblacks are visual counterparts to Horatio Alger’s boy heroes who rose from humble backgrounds to middle-class security through hard work, determination, and honesty. Indeed, Brown’s paintings were often purchased by newly affluent businessmen who saw themselves mirrored in the artist’s ambitious models.
Brown’s popular bootblack and dog subjects portray virtuous and caring relationships between a boy and his dog. Color No Objection is one of the most poignant versions of the subject, and one of only about a dozen works by the artist featuring African American children. This painting’s provenance is well documented back to its original sale in James D. Gill’s annual exhibition of 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts.
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This painting was acquired under the guidance of former Muskegon Museum of Art Senior Curator E. Jane Connell. Connell’s first job out of graduate school was at the Holyoke Museum of the Holyoke Public Library—the owner of this work at the time—and Color No Objection was an immediate favorite. The painting was acquired by the MMA decades later from a commercial dealer, after passing through several other hands.