A Street Arab

Antonio Piccinni 1846 - 1920

Summary

A young man in ragged clothing, seated on the ground facing the viewer. He has bare feet and his arms are folded across his knees. He has short hair and a small cap. His chin is resting on his hands. 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, 'Extreme poverty, face aging prematurely, and almost desperate, a painful subject rendered with extraordinary power. The expression of the forehead, eyes, and mouth is terrible. The etching is most skilful throughout.'