The picture was probably painted as a result of the artist’s successful illustrations to the Bible which were published in 1865-6. There then followed a series of ambitious compositions with religious overtones such as the Triumph of Christianity over Paganism of 1867-68 in the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario. The subject is one of unalloyed sentimentality where the beautiful but penniless tambourine girl is comforted by the old man. The figures appear to be from the gypsy community although they could also be Spanish as in the Spanish beggars formerly in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, deaccessioned in 1989.

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