Charles James Lewis RI (1830-1892) was a popular and prolific watercolour and oil painter who specialised in landscapes and rustic genre scenes featuring children and animals. He was born in Chelsea where he lived most of his life, and began exhibiting in 1853 at the Royal Academy. He went on to exhibit there regularly, as well as at the British Institute, the Society of British Artist, the New Watercolour Society, the Grosvenor Gallery and the New Gallery. He was elected a member of the Institute of Painters in Watercolours in 1882. This gouache watercolour sketch with acacia highlights was executed for a later oil painting measuring 74.3 by 120 centimetres, which was completed in 1858 and is in private hands. The detailed brushwork of the watercolour with highlights in acacia gum varnish, reflects Lewis's equal expertise as a painter in oils.

The viewpoint of the painting, although depicting a Punch and Judy booth of an itinerant showman with Mr. Punch visible and a drummer accompanying the performance, reveals that Lewis's real interest was not in the performance but in the audience and the minutiae of daily life in the countryside - such as the baby in the wheeled cart and the children peeping into the booth.