The Peasants at Market

1519

Albrecht Dürer

(German, 1471–1528)

Culture

Germany

Medium

engraving

Credit Line

Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr. 1958.117

Catalogue raisonné

Meder 89

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Location

Not on view

Description

This quasi-market scene presents Dürer’s commentary on the social and economic role of women in the rural marketplace. In northern Europe during this period, lower class women possessed a certain amount of independence. They could move about the city buying and selling market goods to benefit the household. Here, a man peddles eggs from a large basket as the older woman listens shrewdly to his sales pitch. As indicated by the money purse at her feet, the hens in her hand, and the goods over her shoulder, it is the older woman and not the younger man who wields the position of power in this transaction.