Tiny Tim

I've tried to use historical figures as the models for as many characters as I can.  Tiny Tim is a central figure in the story.  Of all the characters, he's the first who really starts to melt Scrooge's icy heart, and he maybe has the strongest impact on Scrooge.

But I had trouble finding a suitable person to portray him.  Fortunately, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, helped me out.  In the Netherlandish Collection there is a delightful painting by Jan de Bray, titled "Portrait of a Boy Holding a Basket of Fruit" (1658).

I wasn't able to learn the identity of the sitter, so I've credited him as "Jan de Bray (The Younger)."  The boy may or may not have been Jan de Bray's son, but painters from that period often used their own family members as models.

Here is my original sketch, which I made at the MFA:

I decided to do the final version in silverpoint.  I'm not presenting that one here (it's in the eBook), but this is a practice version in silverpoint:

Both images in this post are high resolution jpegs to show the detail.

The eBook (Scrooge Studies: An Illustrated Exploration of Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol") is available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Scrooge-Studies-Illustrated-Exploration-Christmas-ebook/dp/B07GZ9QJKX/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1539908783&sr=1-2&keywords=scrooge+studies.