A Poor Roman

Antonio Piccinni 1846 - 1920

Summary

Portrait of a middle aged man. The subject is facing to the left and seen in profile. He is unshaven with short tousled hair. He is wearing a jacket over a waistcoat. There are shadows in the background with no 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 striking face with a saddened and wearied expression, as if the man had found life hard for him. He looks very like an Irishman out of employment, hanging about the Liverpool Docks. The face does not seem highly civiized, but it inspires sympathy.'