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Black ink sketch of the cast clothes man

Object | Accession Number: 2016.184.247

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    Overview

    Brief Narrative
    Ink drawing depicting an old clothes peddler with a sack slung over his back. He has a large, pointed nose and fleshy lips, both stereotypical physical features commonly attributed to Jewish men. The large sack slung over the man’s back is commonly used to identify peddlers or old clothes dealers. Peddlers were itinerant vendors who sold goods to the public. They usually traveled alone and carried their goods with them as they went. Clothes peddlers dealt in old garments they bought, cleaned and repaired, and then sold for profit. Peddling was a common occupation for Jewish men during the 18th and 19th centuries. However, old prejudices formed an antisemitic stereotype of the Jewish peddler. The stereotype originated from the economic and professional restrictions placed on early European Jews. They were barred from owning land, farming, joining trade guilds, and military service. These restrictions limited Jews to the occupations of retail peddling, hawking, and moneylending. Additionally, medieval religious belief held that charging interest (known as usury) was sinful, and the Jews who occupied these professions were looked down upon, predominantly by European Christians. They were perceived as morally deficient and willing to engage in unethical business practices. The inability of Jews to legally hold other occupations, combined with Christians’ disdain for the professions Jews were allowed to practice, helped form the canard of the greedy Jew who exploited Gentiles. This canard was often visually depicted as a Jewish peddler, an untrustworthy figure that sold cut-rate items at inflated prices. The drawing is one of more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.
    Title
    The Old Man
    Date
    creation:  approximately 1850-approximately 1859
    Geography
    creation: England
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Katz Family
    Contributor
    Compiler: Peter Ehrenthal
    Artist: Richard Walls
    Biography
    The Katz Ehrenthal Collection is a collection of more than 900 objects depicting Jews and antisemitic and anti-Jewish propaganda from the medieval to the modern era, in Europe, Russia, and the United States. The collection was amassed by Peter Ehrenthal, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, to document the pervasive history of anti-Jewish hatred in Western art, politics and popular culture. It includes crude folk art as well as pieces created by Europe's finest craftsmen, prints and periodical illustrations, posters, paintings, decorative art, and toys and everyday household items decorated with depictions of stereotypical Jewish figures.

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Classification
    Art
    Category
    Drawings
    Genre/Form
    Ink drawings.
    Physical Description
    Loosely sketched, black ink drawing on a stiff sheet of faded and discolored off-white paper with irregular edges. It depicts an old, Jewish clothes peddler standing in right profile with a large, prominent, pointed nose and fleshy lips. He is wearing an open jacket and striped pants with a bowler hat beneath a top hat. He is hunched slightly forward, and carrying a large sack over his right shoulder. A top hat is in his left hand, and other garments are strewn over his arms and shoulders. The title and artist name are handwritten in English below the image. There is a handwritten caption on the back, which is bordered by tape and adhesive residue.
    Dimensions
    overall: Height: 6.000 inches (15.24 cm) | Width: 4.875 inches (12.383 cm)
    Materials
    overall : paper, ink, adhesive tape, adhesive, pencil
    Inscription
    front, bottom center, handwritten, pencil : “The Old Man” Richard Walls
    back, top, handwritten, black ink : T(?)he “cast clothes” man at the Bar

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    No restrictions on access
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Geographic Name
    England.

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The drawing was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.
    Funding Note
    The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Special Collection
    Katz Ehrenthal Collection
    Record last modified:
    2024-10-03 11:10:54
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn538874

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