Lazarillo de Tormes and His Blind Master
before 1880
Medium
oil on fabric
Dimensions
unframed: 91.5 × 73.7 cm · framed: 108 × 90 × 7 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Modern European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Bequest of Noah L. Butkin
Accession Number
1980.282
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
About this artwork
The subject of this painting comes from the 16th-century Spanish novel Lazarillo de Tormes. This tells the story of Lazarillo, a poor servant boy who worked for an impoverished blind man. Abused by his master, and never given enough to eat or drink, Lazarillo is forced to fend for himself. According to the story, he steals wine by drinking it from a straw directly from the blind man's jug. This painting relates to a cultural movement known as espagnolisme, the French interest in Spanish art and ...