That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for February 21, 2020

“Mom always did like our sister best.”

Preparing for day to come to marry off her daughter, dad was getting her image and specks down on paper early, before she becomes overaged.

“Sorry Annie, but based on your relative usefulness, the dog stays. Now shove off.”

back in the days before school photos they had school pencil sketches…

Mulready thanking the portraitist who told him about using curare-induced paralysis to get kids to be still. So far, none had died, but you had to keep alert for signs of trouble…

Mother: “the nose isn’t right.”

1st boy: “give her some boobies, hehe”

2nd boy: “can I go play?”

The only way the Harrisons would ever see themselves in a mansion is if Father drew them in one.

Carroll: “And then what did the Cheshire cat say?”

It says right here in The Book of Rules, “Brown”.

Millicent, the audition is in three days. Now try to concentrate. The line is, ’I’m a little tea pot…’ not ’I’m a little pee pot’.

Where’s the painting of the guy painting the picture of the guy painting the picture, in the painting on the wall?

Please hurry. Mr. Dickens is casting Estella today, and we need new head shots. Little Lucinda’s last sketch was made over six months ago!

Say cheese!

He’s depicting the poor little wretch/ for a letter they’re sending a “lech”/ who offers a fee/ for girls such as she/ so of course, he’s “enhancing” the sketch..

DOOR TO DOOR GAME SHOW HOST: Ok. This is for all the marbles. Literally. That’s the prize. What did your mom and brothers say your value to the family was?

Oh, I’m sorry. You ran out of time. The answer was “nothing”.

Well, I’ll never get it finished if I have to keep changing the height…

There’s something weird about that dog’s head.

This looks like today’s “Stone Soup”.

Is there a tabby cat asleep in the basket?

The Child Sitter: 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Mulready_-_The_Child_Sitter.jpg 

has info and links that point to info about this roughly jumbo envelope size painting. Other versions has strip coloration.

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/mulready_william.html 

http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/mulready/index.html 

https://www.the-athenaeum.org/people/detail.php?ID=5136 

https://www.wga.hu/bio_m/m/mulready/biograph.html 

https://prabook.com/web/william.mulready/721953 

https://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100215640 

https://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/correspondence/people/biog/?bid=Mulr_W&initial=M 

https://theodora.com/encyclopedia/m2/william_mulready.html 

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/biographies-of-irish-artists/william-mulready.htm 

http://www.avictorian.com/Mulready_Augustus_Edwin.html 

all have info, or links that point to more info, about this artist, perhaps in addition to what’s pointed to by the title URL. This is the first work by him used here.

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (⌘- or Ctrl-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #2389 (February 20, 2020) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment.

Annie’s family was delighted to reap the profits from her modeling gigs.

Now, you say the thief was fat and wearing a red robe?

“Madam, the Sears portrait package includes one 11 × 17, four 8 × 10, and a dozen wallets.”

Lilly, being interviewed by procurer for sex trade, mother is happy that she found a good job, and can come home with money every Monday.

First rough draft for “Small Wonder: the Victorian Era”.