Farny’s Suspicious Guests was published in the February 05, 1887, issue, of Harper’s Weekly, pages 96-97. I have yet to locate the original of this illustration.
After seeing the illustration in the magazine, Cincinnatian Alex McDonald put in an order with Farny for a similar painting on a larger scale, based on a February 20, 1887, article in the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Farny had nearly completed the painting by July 03, 1887, according to the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. It was titled Unwelcome Guests and is currently owned by the Cincinnati Art Museum. The size of the painting is over 4′ wide by over 3′ tall, which is much bigger than the work that served as the basis for the Harper’s illustration.
There are numerous differences between the Harper’s Illustration and the later painting. It makes for a good “Spot-the-Difference” game.
Of course, the similarity between the names and the theme means the two images and their names easily get confused. Even the CAM’s website indicates the alternative title for Unwelcome Guests is Suspicious Guests, but given these are two distinctly different paintings, that seems an incorrect statement.
