Old Man in a Church

Antonio Piccinni 1846 - 1920

Summary

An elderly man seated in a church pew. He is facing to the left and is seen in profile. He has a cane held between his legs and has his arms stretched out, over the back of the pew in front of him, to the left. He wears a dark frock coat and has short hair. There is no background detail. This etching was one of a collection formed by print expert PG Hamerton (1834-94) for the Manchester Art Museum, an educational gallery which opened in 1886 in the industrial suburb of Ancoats. The collection was transferred to the City Art Gallery in 1912, the Art Museum maintaining that they did not have enough space to display it. On acquisition, the prints were displayed together, with a catalogue of the pithy comments on each print that Hamerton had made in 1882. For this work, he had noted, 'A most expressive piece of work, the face is an excellent study. Observe the perfect truth of character in the costume, and the poor meagre figure within it, especially the thin leg in the trouser.'