The Spectacle Seller

Accession Number
1949/1.110

Title
The Spectacle Seller

Artist(s)
Adriaen Jansz van Ostade

Artist Nationality
Dutch (culture or style)

Object Creation Date
circa 1647-1652

Medium & Support
etching, drypoint and engraving on paper

Dimensions
4 in x 3 3/10 in (10.16 cm x 8.41 cm);19 3/10 in x 14 ¼ in (49.05 cm x 36.2 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Carl Fredric Clarke

Label copy
Ostade's etching shows a door-to-door salesman offering a pair of spectacles to a woman leaning out a half-open door. The peddler seen in this print seems benevolent and the woman appears eager to examine his wares. However, specatacles themselves had alternately good and bad associations, linked on the one hand with clarity of perception and wisdom, and on the other hand with deception.

Primary Object Classification
Print

Collection Area
Western

Rights
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Keywords
glasses
historical figures

2 Related Resources

Work and Workers
(Part of 9 Learning Collections)
Early Modern European Peasants
(Part of 10 Learning Collections)

& Author Notes

Web Use Permitted