Artwork Page for The Bohemians

Details / Information for The Bohemians

The Bohemians

c. 1621–25

Jacques Callot

(French, 1592–1635)
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Culture
France, 17th century
Medium
etching and engraving
Measurements
Sheet: 12.4 x 23.8 cm (4 7/8 x 9 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund 2004.42
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

Jacques Callot, a masterful draftsman, spent the greater part of his life at the ducal courts of Tuscany and Lorraine, where he produced prints to record festivals and theatrical performances. He also executed religious subjects and scenes reflecting many aspects of daily life including war, pervasive in 17th-century Europe. When returning to France from Italy, Callot probably saw bands of rootless men, women, and children-a common sight-which became the subject of The Bohemians. He conceived of these four prints as a long frieze; the lines in each of the sheets extend into the sheet that follows. The first two scenes depict a procession of scrawny horses and disheveled families in tattered, exotic clothing. The last two show these vagrants pillaging a farm and then enjoying a feast. The inscriptions, from left to right, comment on the action: The only things these poor fortune-telling beggars carry with them are things yet to come. Are these not fine messengers, straying through foreign lands? You who take pleasure in their words, watch out for your blancs, testons and pitolles (coins). When all is said and done, they find that their fate is to have come from Egypt to this feast.
A horizontally oriented print in fine, black-inked lines depicts a procession of people with light skin tones traveling right. In the center, a man on horseback raises a whip. To the left, a horse draws a crowded cart, while others walk nearby carrying children, bundles, and long poles. All shading is created with fine, hatched lines. Two lines of French text are inscribed in the upper left against a plain background.

The Bohemians

c. 1621–25

Jacques Callot

(French, 1592–1635)
France, 17th century

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