Genre Pictures

Antonín Jan Gareis the Elder’s graphic art combines his love of the theatre and literature with an acute observation of street life. Gareis depicts the street vendors, craftsmen, tradesmen and other denizens of urban life as languishing on the verge of destitution, but unlike Hogarth does not comment their condition as hopeless. His Genre Pictures are reminiscent of the „Cries“, prints that already in 17th century England depicted the lowest orders of society, their habits, professions and customs.