Picturing Poverty

Wars, epidemics, and famine often forced people to leave their homes. The poor got poorer and lost the little they possessed. Desperate, without any prospects for the future, they were often left only with the hope of alms. Beggars dominated the street scene.

It wasn’t until the art of the 17th century that the beggar featured prominently as an individual figure.

Travelling people from faraway lands were often greeted with little enthusiasm. The unfamiliar unsettled people and fuelled their fears. Discrimination against what is foreign has existed from time immemorial.

The four-part series The Bohemians is one of the most famous works of the Lorraine artist Jacques Callot. The engraver conceived of these prints in the form of a long frieze. The lines at the bottom of each sheet extend into the next so they can be joined together. The copperplates have been preserved in Musée Lorrain in Nancy.

The first two sheets depict a group of figures marching past carrying their belongings, seemingly in silence. Pots, pans, and small barrels, as well as weapons and many animals such as geese, chicken, pigeons, or cats are clearly recognisable. What stands out is their clothing, with billowing cloaks and large hats, some of which are decorated with feathers. Numerous children are sitting on the wagons, the horses, or wandering alongside them. Each person has their own distinct character. Callot’s precise powers of observation and his ability to empathise with different segments of society enable him to render anonymous people as individuals with just a few strokes.

Villagers can frequently be seen standing in the background, watching the procession with suspicion. The inscriptions in the prints also point to this negative view of the travelling people.

The Beggars series is one of Jacques Callot’s most famous series, in which he turned his attention to everyday life and depicts the misery on the streets and squares around him in a drastic and unembellished manner. After a magnificent time in the service of the Medici, Callot returned from Florence to his hometown of Nancy in 1621 and was confronted there with the consequences of the Thirty Years’ War. The sources speak of great poverty and numerous beggars throughout the city.

The artist places the people prominently in the foreground, thus automatically making them the centre of attention. Each figure has its own story to tell. If they could speak, many violent, traumatic, and sad things would come to light. They seem lonely but still possess a kind of pride and dignity.

The wealthy, who otherwise only looked at these people on the edge of society with contempt or stolen glances, bought these depictions – often also in the form of paintings, as two slate paintings in the Alte Galerie show, which are copies after Callot’s etchings.

The last two sheets of the four-part The Bohemians series by Jacques Callot show the itinerant travellers after they have settled in one place. In print three, they are depicted as pillaging and begging. Animals and sacks of grain are stolen from a barn. The villagers are trying to chase them away and are beating them with sticks and long poles. The wealthy let women read their palms and in return give alms to the mothers with small children.

Where the Bohemians have set up camp, Callot incorporates numerous everyday scenes similar to village life: Animals are being slaughtered, and chickens plucked. They are preparing a feast. In the middle of the picture, hungry children are waiting in front of a large pot, and animals are roasting over an open fire. In the foreground a woman is checking a man’s head for fleas, to the right men are playing cards, just behind them a woman is giving birth, and at the edge of the camp a man is relieving himself.