The Cobbler's Apprentice is a painting by the American painter Frank Duveneck, painted in 1877.^[1] It hangs in the Taft Museum of Art of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States.^[2] The oil on canvas portrait measures 38.5 by 26.75 inches (978 mm × 679 mm) and it is signed by the artist.^[3][4]

Duveneck painted The Cobbler's Apprentice in Munich, Germany, where at the time he was regarded as a leading American artist.^[3][5]

The subject of The Cobbler's Apprentice is a boy, shown three-quarters-length, and turned three quarters to the right. He is holding a large basket to his right side while he blows smoke from a cigar held in his left hand.^[3]

The painting was sold in Munich for $25 to one Mr. von Hessling, the American Vice Consul, was for a time owned by Mr. Joseph Stransky of New York, and was finally acquired into the collection of Mr. Charles Phelps Taft.^[6][7]

The painting was parodied in the 2011 mural The Cobbler's Apprentice Plays Ball on The Banks near the Great American Ball Park.^[8] Instead of holding a cigar and a basket of vegetables, the boy now appears holding a baseball bat.^[9]