The Peasant and his Wife at Market
Albrecht Dürer
The Peasant and his Wife at Market
engraving
1519
An original Albrecht Dürer engraving.
1519
Original engraving printed in black ink on laid paper.
Signed in the plate with the artist’s monogram on a stone lower right.
A superb 16th century Meder “b” (of c) impression, showing strong contrasts throughout, printed after the appearance of the black spot on one of the eggs in the basket and on the tip of the man’s jerkin.
Catalog: Bartsch 89; Dodgson 90; Panofsky 196; Meder 89.b; Strauss 90; Schoch/Mende/Scherbaum 88.
In 1876 the scholar Moriz Thausing noted the “delightful hinterland simplicity and earthy humor which were yet to play a great role in German Netherlandish art.” In 1928 the scholar Eduard Flechsig proposed that the woman is no relation of the peasant’s but is only curious about what he has to sell, although she has already made several purchases.
