Les gueux.

22 etchings, ca. 14,2 x 9,3 cm (platemarks), laid paper with wide margins, signed in title "Iocomo Callot in. et fe." (some creases and stains on "La mendiante au rosaire", occ. foxing).

22 (of 25) plates from the series "Les Gueux" (The Beggars), including title plate. Probably the artist's most innovative series of etchings, in which he represented a wide variety of beggars as he witnessed them during his journey to Italy. With depictions of suffering, poor and dismembered beggars, the etchings are testimony to Callot's psychological and social understanding of the Condition Humaine. All etchings are fresh and early impressions of the first state (of 2) without the numbering. Missing from the series are "Les deux pélérins", "Le mendiant au rosaire" and "La vieille aux chats".
Ref. Lieure 479-503.I.