Boy with a Dog

The young Murillo first made his name with small genre scenes from the life of simple urban folk and homeless children, painted at a time when a plague was raging in his native Seville. His works are always full of a natural realism, free of ideological content. By the end of the 1640s, after he had traveled to Madrid and become acquainted with the painting of Vel�zquez and Venetian artists, his use of chiaroscuro grew finer and his compositions acquired a more stylised and sentimental character.