English: Emma Soyer, "The Two Inseparables", 1837.

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A Margate boy and donkey, painted on the spot. The most interesting part of this delightful delineation is the fact of the young donkey had to be

carried to the first floor of the Parade House for every sitting. When almost finished, the boy's mother saw the picture. She was indignant at the idea of seeing her boy's knee through his ragged trousers, observing that she had a new suit of clothes at home, which, she said, would have been the most proper way to take him. But this did not suit the artist, who wished to paint from nature. It required some management not to let the mother see it again until finished. (Description from F. Volant and J. R. Warren, eds., Memoirs of Alexis Soyer; with unpublished receipts and odds and ends of gastronomy, London, 1859, p. 141.)