Eight Beggars
Medium
Etching, only state
Dimensions
3 5/16 x 10 in. (8.4 x 25.4 cm) cut on platemark
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1917
Accession Number
17.50.15-343
Tags
Art Historical Context
Created in 1630, *Eight Beggars* is an etching that captures a humble procession of men moving through an open landscape. The work is associated with Jacques Callot, whose innovative etching techniques revolutionized the medium in the early seventeenth century, and Wenceslaus Hollar, a skilled etcher known for his precise reproductive prints. Measuring just over three by ten inches, the small scale emphasizes the intimate, almost narrative quality of the scene, inviting viewers to examine each figure’s ragged clothing and expressive posture. Etching was particularly well suited to this subjec...
About the Artist
Jacques Callot|Wenceslaus Hollar · 1592–1635
Jacques Callot (1592–1635) was a French printmaker and draftsman from the Duchy of Lorraine, widely regarded as one of the first great artists to practice the graphic arts exclusively. His more than 1,400 etchings chronicled the breadth of 17th-century life, from Medici court festivities to the brutal realities of warfare. Callot revolutionized etching through technical innovations including the é...