No. 3 of 74 (PAJ1976 - PAJ2049)

The woman is probably a street vendor, possibly in London or Portsmouth. The two rather louche idlers strolling past on the left give the impression of being complicit in the urchins' pilfering of fruit from the barrow. They are reminiscent of the Italian street and commedia dell'arte figures etched by the 17th-century engraver Jacques Callot, though it is perhaps unlikely Bray could have known these.

This is one of 73 drawings by Bray (plus one signed 'NF 1782') preserved in a 19th-century album. They have now been separately remounted. Bray (1750-1823), was second lieutenant of the 44-gun ‘Pallas’ under Captain the Hon. William Cornwallis (1744-1819) – later a well-known admiral - on two voyages (1774-77) to report on British interests in West Africa, including the slave trade. The dated drawings refer only to the first of these, from December 1774 to September 1775, though a few may be from the second. Others comprise country views, some of Deal, Kent (where Bray may have come from), and others of social-history interest.