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Oil painting of a shabbily dressed clothes peddler

Object | Accession Number: 2016.184.253

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    Oil painting of a shabbily dressed clothes peddler

    Overview

    Brief Narrative
    Oil on canvas painting depicting an old clothes peddler walking in a city street in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Peddlers were itinerant vendors who sold goods to the public. They usually traveled alone and carried their goods with them as they went. For example, clothes peddlers dealt specifically in garments. They bought used clothes, cleaned and repaired them, and then sold them for a profit. Peddling was a common occupation for young Jewish men during the 18th and 19th centuries. Most peddlers hoped their hard work would serve as a springboard to more lucrative and comfortable occupations. 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 painting is one of more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.
    Artwork Title
    Poor clothes peddler
    Date
    creation:  approximately 1830
    Geography
    depiction: Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Katz Family
    Contributor
    Compiler: Peter Ehrenthal
    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

    Classification
    Art
    Category
    Paintings
    Object Type
    Jews in art (lcsh)
    Genre/Form
    Oil Paintings.
    Physical Description
    Painting in oil on canvas depicting a clothes peddler in right profile walking on an unpaved street. He has a detailed, realistic face with dark eyes and a large nose, a long brown beard, a mustache, and brown hair. He wears shabby clothing: a black hat with uneven sides, a long brown coat with a torn hem, brown socks with a hole in the right heel, and brown shoes with no backs. He carries a bundle of white and brown clothing draped over his shoulder and holds a circular mirror in his other hand, with a white scarf draped over his arm. There are several figures with indistinct features on the street behind him. There are tall, dilapidated, light brown buildings on both sides of the street. The painting is in a gilt wooden frame with an embossed floral and dot design.
    Dimensions
    overall: Height: 22.625 inches (57.468 cm) | Width: 18.750 inches (47.625 cm) | Depth: 1.750 inches (4.445 cm)
    pictorial area: Height: 17.375 inches (44.133 cm) | Width: 13.500 inches (34.29 cm)
    Materials
    overall : canvas, oil paint

    Rights & Restrictions

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

    Keywords & Subjects

    Geographic Name
    Frankfurt am Main (Germany)

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The painting 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:
    2022-07-28 18:12:44
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn538882

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