The Bohemian Woman (c. 1656-58): Artwork and History

The Bohemian Woman (c. 1656-58) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Cornelis Visscher Dutch, c. 1629-1658.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Unlike his contemporaries in 17th-century Holland, Cornelis Visscher adopted engraving rather than etching as his main form of artistic production. Viewed as a master of the complex technique, he made works that were praised and collected. The peasants shown in Visscher’s scenes are both rugged and nearly facetious. His Bohemian Woman depicts a mother acting as a balance beam for three animated children—all demanding some form of attention from her. The combination of her exposed breast with suckling infant, approaching hunters, and an oddly placed whimsical backdrop is disconcerting but simultaneously all the more intriguing in its incongruity.

Object facts

• Title: The Bohemian Woman
• Date: c. 1656-58
• Artist attribution: Cornelis Visscher Dutch, c. 1629-1658
• Place of origin: Holland
• Medium: Engraving on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: Plate: 37.4 × 31.8 cm (14 3/4 × 12 9/16 in.); Sheet: 38.8 × 32.9 cm (15 5/16 × 13 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1923.1052

Collection credit

Gift of Horace S. Oakley

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.