Jacques de Gheyn II
Dutch, 1565-1629
Two Studies of a Roma Woman and a Roma Boy in a Large Hat
INV-9505
Jacques de Gheyn II
Dutch, 1565-1629c. 1605
Two Studies of a Roma Woman and a Roma Boy in a Large Hat
Jacques de Gheyn II Dutch, 1565-1629 →pen and ink drawingsdrawings (visual works)
Date
c. 1605
Medium
Pen and black iron gall ink on tan laid paper
Dimensions
23 × 26 cm (9 1/16 × 10 1/4 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Tiffany and Margaret Blake
Jacques De Gheyn II employed a stylized graphic language of hatching and cross-hatching to capture the individual features and garments of the figures represented here, which include a woman shown from two vantage points and a young boy. The artist used iron gall ink made from the protective growth an oak tree produces after a wasp lays its eggs inside the tree branch. The ink is deep brown and almost black in some areas. Because iron gall ink contains a high concentration of tannic acid, however, it dissolves paper over time. Above the right foot of the Roma woman the damaged paper was repaired.
On several occasions De Gheyn represented figures from the Roma or Romani community, itinerant members of Dutch society whose origins can be traced to northern India. Often finding shelter at the outskirts of cities, the Roma frequently took up informal trades like peddling and fortune telling.
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