Artwork
Le colporteur juif (The Jewish Peddler)
Le colporteur juif (The Jewish Peddler) is an ink print by the Impressionist artist Jean-Louis Forain. It dates from 1900 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Le colporteur juif (The Jewish Peddler) is a print created by Jean-Louis Forain around 1900 using transfer lithography on laid paper.
Subject & Meaning
The print depicts a Jewish peddler, a common figure associated with itinerant trade in late 19th-century France, carrying a bundle and possibly eating or smoking.
Technique & Style
Forain employed lithography, a technique allowing prints to be made from a smooth surface, to capture a fleeting moment of everyday life with loose, quick lines, giving the image a rough, unfinished quality.
Context
Forain's work was produced during a period when printmaking was a significant medium for artists to explore social themes and everyday life, and he was more commercially successful than many of his Impressionist contemporaries.
Artist & collection
Artist
Jean-Louis Forain (French pronunciation: ; 23 October 1852 – 11 July 1931) was a French Impressionist painter and printmaker, working in media including oils, watercolour, pastel, etching and lithograph.
La retour (The Return)
Au Coin de la Borne
Marchand d'Habits
A Woman Carrying a Bundle of Sticks
Untitled
The Distant City (La ville lointaine)
Quand le boche se retire...
Refugee Family
The Departure for Versailles
Le départ de l'enfant prodigue (1ère planche, en hauteur) (The Departure of the Prodigal Son) (first plate, vertical)