James Howe (1780-1836) specialised in painting horses. However, his lively works often illustrate other aspects of early nineteenth century Scottish life. Here he depicts a fishwife who has accepted a lift in a cadger's cart.

This is a mounted, framed and glazed drawing in ink. The subject would have been familiar to all in the nineteenth century being a study of a fishwife and cadger, both in his horse drawn cart. The artist has signed himself HOWE on the visible cart-shaft.

Howe learnt to draw from his schoolmaster as a child, illustrating the sermons of his father, a minister. Apprenticed to the Nories in Edinburgh, he became a portrait painter and produced a series of works featuring aspects of the Battle of Waterloo. Many of his drawings were made for book illustrations and were published as engravings.