The Butt: Shooting a Cherry

Mulready's The Butt: Shooting a Cherry (1822–1848), worked on over more than two decades, depicts boys engaged in the outdoor game of shooting at a cherry target — the 'butt' being the target, not the firearm. The extraordinary time span of the painting's execution — begun in 1822 and not completed until 1848 — suggests either extreme perfectionism or multiple phases of reworking, as Mulready reconsidered the composition across the changing decades of Victorian painting. The outdoor game subject combines his interest in children's play with his equally strong interest in landscape, the boys embedded in a specific English outdoor setting rendered with the same careful observation as the figures themselves.

The outdoor scene demonstrates Mulready's skill at integrating figures with landscape. The long working period resulted in an exceptionally refined surface, with each detail polished to a high degree of finish.