Recuerdos de un viage por España. - Mendigo

Original wood engraving enhanced with watercolor and gum arabic highlights from the period, signature in the plate by Clerman at lower right. Plate engraved by Duverger.
Print created for "Recuerdos de un viage por España" by Francisco de Paula Mellado, an account of his journey through the multiple provinces of Spain and overseas territories in which the author studies the customs, legends, literature, history and geography of each place. This type of illustration is emblematic of Spanish Romantic aesthetics and its fashion for "costume studies" ("Cuadro de costumbres"), veritable galleries of generic characters in the manner of "Les Français peints par eux-mêmes" from the same period.
Superb watercolor whose gum arabic varnish accentuates the contrasts.