Material: Ivory
Origin: Germany, Dresden
Artist: Attributed to Wilhelm Krüger (Danzig 1680 – Dresden 1756)
Date: Circa 1711
Dimensions: Height: 19,5 cm
Beggars, vagrants and vagabonds have long held popular appeal and are frequently depicted on paintings and drawings. People of class and distinction were also interested in such figures during the eighteenth century. They are for instance represented in Meissen porcelain.
Many model makers in porcelain factories were trained as ivory carvers or sculptors, specialized in making small sculptures. Wilhelm Krüger was such an ivory worker, and is known to have made figures of beggars. From 1711 he was involved with the Dresdener Kunstkammer. This beggaress, who is incidentally wearing a well stocked pouch and is doubtless less impoverished than she is pretending to be, was based on a drawing by Jacques Callot (1592-1635). The wonderfully carved original base is a remarkable detail. Krüger was supplied with such bases and frames for his sculptures and reliefs by a specialist in this field.
There was an interest in the Netherlands too for such figures. Johan de Haan mentions the following in his published research into the lacquer cabinet that was formerly at the Stadtholderly Court in Leeuwarden, and has been part of the collection of the Rijksmuseum since 1880: apart from pieces inlaid with amber, there was also a table on which is placed a company of beggars, very artfully made from ivory. This refers to the thirteen figures of beggars made in the style of Simon Troger (183-1768) which are now also in the Rijksmuseum. These figures were acquired in 1817 from a private collection in Leeuwarden.
Developing research into this interesting matter has established that these ivory beggar figures, partly done in pear wood, and though they also have glass eyes, are certainly not by Simon Troger, but by one of his followers, Veit Graupenberg active in Tirol.
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