A Beggar Woman, ca. 1850

A Beggar Woman

ca. 1850 · Statuette

May one see it?

Yes, receiving visitors

Victoria and Albert Museum

London, United Kingdom

RoomSculpture, Room 111, The Gilbert Bayes Gallery

On public display.

Checked
In this state since
Source
The museum

About the sculpture

This statuette representing a beggar woman, a pair to one of a beggar man (A.11-1949) was previously thought to have been made Dresden in about 1730-1750.

It is reminiscent of Dresden ivory statuettes of beggars of the eighteenth century, many of which are in the Grünes Gewölbe, Dresden. These firgures may have had as their ultimate source the earlier engravings by Jacques Callot (1592/3-1635). Formerly such pieces used to be attributed to the Dresden artist Wilhelm Krüger (1680-1756), to whom the present statuettes of a beggar man and a beggar woman were attributed at the time of their acquisition. However there is no evidence Krüger worked in ivory. It is far more likely that the figures in the V&A were actually made in Dieppe ivories in the mid-nineteenth century.

Victoria and Albert Museum

Particulars

Accession number
A.12-1949

What it shows

In the catalog

Sources

In the same room · Sculpture, Room 111, The Gilbert Bayes Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum

Museum page

On the same theme · Beggar

All works on the theme