Zes bedelaars bij een fontein 1647 - 1674

Curator: This etching, "Six Beggars by a Fountain," by Jan van Ossenbeeck, probably made somewhere between 1647 and 1674, offers such a poignant look at 17th-century life. Editor: It’s all very dark and weary-looking. There is a real heaviness about this scene, isn’t there? That rough etched line creates such palpable despair. You feel how coarse everything is—the clothes, the ground…the lives of these people. Curator: I see it, definitely! Ossenbeeck really gets at the textures with his technique. But consider the socio-economic context—beggars were everywhere in that era, and they depended heavily on communal wells and fountains, essential as hubs for all. Water wasn’t free, it was the original social space. Editor: Interesting idea—social space—made from need, certainly! What I also get is the artist's close observation of these figures; see how slumped and broken they seem. Their clothing, rendered with such precision, almost tells their stories. This image makes me reflect on the unseen labour that keeps societies alive but often goes unrewarded. And it makes me ask what materials did he need for that technique? How were the plates prepared? Curator: A vital question, one the artwork evokes quite organically! Thinking of this printmaking process and what went into circulating those kinds of images; that is something to contemplate. The distribution itself mirrors the socio-political networks that sustained the social relations among the represented folks. It makes me wonder what sort of exchange went into that process. Was this an image intended to shock the well-to-do? A reminder, perhaps? Or something else? Editor: Maybe it just showed reality, which, as usual, wasn't what the well-to-do would have liked to see. The simple existence of work. Curator: Possibly! There’s a story brewing in this work; the fountain becomes the center of their small universe and maybe in ours. It’s more than just ink on paper; it is a conversation across time, if we take a moment. Editor: Precisely—and in looking closer, it prompts more thought about the world, labor and material existence beyond.