Peasant Family on the Tramp

Skip to main content
Photograph by John Bentham.
Peasant Family on the Tramp
Photograph by John Bentham.
Artist/Maker (Dutch, 1606 - 1669)
Datec. 1652
MediumEtching
DimensionsSheet (trimmed within edges of plate): 4 7/16 × 3 5/8 in. (11.3 × 9.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of Marguerite M. Arkwright
Object number1984.22
Not on view
DescriptionRembrandt was both a painter and a printmaker; his etchings are renowned. Unlike most artists, who entrusted others to create prints after their works, Rembrandt began making his own prints when he was only twenty years old. He subsequently produced many original prints, not based on paintings or drawings but invented specially for the medium in question. In addition to his biblical scenes, Rembrandt was known for his depictions of common and even poor people—a rare choice in Dutch art of the time. There was little sympathy for paupers in Holland, and the artist may have been influenced by Jacques Callot’s images of beggars, although, unlike the Frenchman, Rembrandt emphasized his subjects’ humanity and dignity. Etching enables a much more fluid line than the labor-intensive process of engraving, and Rembrandt used this quality to advantage in Peasant Family on the Tramp, where the unsteady contour lines that distinguish the figures—characteristic of the artist’s style—resemble marks made by a pencil and emphasize the humbleness of the subject. Beside and behind the primary figure appear a woman and a child, lightly bitten into the plate and adding to the sense that the print is akin to a sketch, with the same liveliness. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017)

Additional Details

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 27, illus.);

2007
Clinton, NY (Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). September 2007 [on display for Professor John McEnroe's art history class].
Provenance 1984: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Gallery), by gift of Marguerite M. Arkwright;
date unknown - 1984: Marguerite M. Arkwright, by inheritance from the estate of Charles E. Baker;
dates unknown: Charles E. Baker, by gift of William Roehrick;
dates unknown: William Roehrick.
Markings None noted.
Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 94.
Signature Not signed.
Inscribed "1 [encircled]" on verso at lower right in pencil.
Photograph by John Bentham.
Augustus and the Tiburtine Sibyl
Antonio da Trento
Date: c. 1527-1531
Medium: Chiaroscuro woodcut from two blocks (pale green and black)
Object number: 1992.24
Photograph by John Bentham.
Untitled
Silvia Taccani
Date: 1989
Medium: 12 Polaroid SX-70 prints mounted to mat board
Object number: 1991.218
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Pho…
Between Rounds, No. 1
George Bellows
Date: 1916
Medium: Lithograph
Object number: 1984.7
Photograph by John Bentham.
Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Elisabetta Sirani
Date: c. 1655-65
Medium: Etching
Object number: 2004.4
Photo by John Bentham.
The Rhinoceros
Albrecht Dürer
Date: 1515 (printed c. 1620)
Medium: Woodcut
Object number: 1994.62
Photograph by John Bentham.
Veduta dell' Anfiteatro Flavio detto Il Colosseo (View of Flavian Amphitheater, called the Colosseum), from the series "Vedute di Roma (Views of Rome)"
Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Date: 1776
Medium: Etching
Object number: 1987.14
Photograph by John Bentham.
Urania, Muse of Astronomy, from the series "The Nine Muses"
Hendrick Goltzius
Date: 1592
Medium: Engraving
Object number: 1992.56
Photograph by John Bentham.
Plate XI, from the series "Elephant Skull"
Henry Moore
Date: 1969 (published 1970)
Medium: Etching
Object number: 1988.21
Photograph by John Bentham.
Tiger's Eye
Helen Frankenthaler
Date: 1985 (published 1987)
Medium: Aquatint and sugar lift etching, lithograph and screenprint
Object number: 1989.13
Photograph by John Bentham.
Scene from "Imoseyama onna teikin (An Example of Noble Womanhood, or The Teachings for Women)"
Toyokuni III
Date: 1852
Medium: Polychrome woodblock print on two sheets of paper
Object number: 1994.92
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Pho…
Spring Rain
Charles E. Burchfield
Date: April 1, 1916
Medium: Watercolor and pencil on paper
Object number: 2016.1.2
Photograph by John Bentham.
Blackbirds
Charles E. Burchfield
Date: March 1916
Medium: Watercolor and graphite on paper
Object number: 2016.1.1