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The Exhausted Ragpicker

1880
Not on view
In this print, Raffaëlli depicts a well-known nineteenth-century Parisian type known as the ragpicker. Often marginalized by contemporary society, the ragpicker traditionally wandered the city collecting refuse and old rags that were eventually made into paper. Displaced to the outskirts of the city by the reorganization of Paris under Baron Haussmann, the ragpicker was also a popular modern subject and stand-in for avant-garde artists whose innovative techniques and subjects often left them on the margins of artistic society. Raffaelli intended to contribute this print to an experimental and unrealized publication titled Le Jour et La Nuit (Night and Day). Though it was never published, Raffaelli exhibited successive states of this print at the fifth Impressionist exhibition in 1880, the first time he exhibited with the group.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Exhausted Ragpicker
  • Artist: Jean-François Raffaëlli (French, Paris 1850–1924 Paris)
  • Date: 1880
  • Medium: Etching, drypoint, aquatint and spit bite
  • Dimensions: Plate: 13 3/8 × 9 7/16 in. (34 × 24 cm)
    Sheet: 13 15/16 × 10 9/16 in. (35.4 × 26.8 cm)
    Mount: 19 11/16 × 15 3/16 in. (50 × 38.5 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Gift of Raj and Grace Dhawan, 2026
  • Object Number: 2026.183
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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The Fletcher Mansion, New York City, Jean-François Raffaëlli French, Oil on canvas
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Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French
Ceramic Horn
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Woman Bathing (La Toilette), Mary Cassatt American, Drypoint and aquatint, printed in color from three plates; fourth state of four (Mathews & Shapiro)
Woman Bathing (La Toilette)
Mary Cassatt
Printer Jointly printed by the artist and Monsieur LeRoy
1890–91
Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, Jean-François Raffaëlli French, Oil on canvas
Place Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris
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Osage Warrior, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin French, Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper, American
Osage Warrior
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
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