two smiles

thanks wikimedia commons.  (PD-old-100-1923)

Charles Soule, Jr. (1835-1897) came from a Dayton, OH family of artistic ability.  His father Charles Soule painted the local dignitaries and gained local renown; his sister Clara was likewise a well-regarded portrait painter and painting teacher, while another sister named Octavia made a name for herself in watercolors and porcelain painting.  Charles Jr. painted portraits in his turn.  This is his Boy with Dog (c. 1860-65), two jolly buddies executed in his typical chunky and naive-feeling style.  They're clearly posing in front of a studio backup, and you have to hand it to Charles Jr. that he managed to remember how to paint a mutt mid lick.
The simple joy you feel looking at this piece becomes all the more poignant when you learn that Charles Sr., thanks to his violent alcoholism, by this time was estranged forever from his son.  Charles Jr. had had to take steps to protect his mother and sisters from his father when he himself wasn't yet twenty.  (I found that out here.)