Young Peasant Seated on the Ground [recto] 

Giuseppe Maria Crespi made this drawing of a young peasant seated on the ground sometime in the late 17th or early 18th century. Crespi was a painter in Bologna, Italy, at a time when the academies of art promoted the classical style. However, Crespi was fascinated by everyday life and he often made drawings of working-class people, like this one done in red chalk. The image presents us with a puzzle: is it an empathetic study of poverty, or an exercise in the artist’s studio? Drawings like this were often made in preparation for paintings, but they also functioned as independent works of art, circulated among collectors, and displayed in albums. While Italian art academies reinforced social hierarchies, Crespi made a virtue of informality. Art historians look to account books, inventories, and other records, to understand the place of images like this one in the artist's life, and the life of the culture around him.