Hendrik Bary (1640-1707),  Old Woman Emptying Pot Throught the Window,  etching and engraving, after the  Frans van Mieris (1635-1681)painting “Goore Besje” (Sleazy Bess), c. 1670. Reference: Hollstein 10, fourth state (of 5); Wurzbach 6, third state (of 4), after the addition of the inscription J. Tangenas exc. In very good condition, on old laid paper with a Foolscap watermark, small margins, 10 1/8 x 7 1/2 inches.

A very good impression.

Simon Schama’s discussion of Dutch paintings such as this one in his Embarrassment of Riches is on point; he notes: “To judge from their art there were no wrinkles quite like Dutch wrinkles.”  Of this print specifically he notes: “Frans van Mieris’s “Sleazy Bess” is despicable because, her honor lost, she throws her own filth on “respectable heads.” But her vileness is so visibly written in her “wrinkled hide” that the legend below the print orders her “away from our sight.”

Detail

Hendrik Bary (1640-1707), Wine is a Mocker, etching and engraving, after Frans van Mieris (1635-1681), painted in 1664, printed in 1670.  Reference: Wurzbach 7, Hollstein 11, third state (of 3), after the addition of the name of the publisher Petrus Schenk, Jr. In good condition, on old laid paper with a large crest watermark, small margins, 11 1/2 x 7 5/8 inches.

A very good impression of this iconic image.

The title is taken from Proverbs 20:1 (Wine is a Mocker). The sleeper is ridiculed as a drinker. The owl recalls two proverbs: Drunk as an Owl, and “What use are candles and spectacles is the owl will not see?” The fool-mocker pours his piss-pot (to invoke the 17th Century expression) on the drunken women, who is both blind to this act and degraded as well.

It’s said – by Diogenes Laetrius in his biography of Socrates – that Socrates was another sufferer of this fate at the hands of his wife.  Also, the fact that Van Mieris had something of a reputation as a drinker places this sheet in an ironic light.

Detail