This portrait is of a young boy from the Beaux Arts Village, a tiny Eastside town that was founded with the vision of a utopian arts colony. The artist Kathleen Houlahan (1887–1964) was born in Winnipeg, Canada, and grew up in Pasadena, California. She moved to Seattle in 1901 to attend the University of Washington. She also studied art in Europe, California, Washington D.C., and with Robert Henri at the Art Students League of New York, where she was one of his most loyal students. Her portraits demonstrate her love of Henri’s work and her ability to adapt his style to meet her objectives. She painted vivid portraits of figures of the Northwest and studies of Southwestern Native Americans.