Members of the itinerant Roma, or Romani, people arrived in Europe by the Middle Ages and have held a prominent place in Western art and literature, from the work of Shakespeare and Hieronymus Bosch to that of the many Roma artists and writers active today.

This talk focuses on an unusual and moving depiction of a Roma woman and child by Dutch artist Jacques de Gheyn, exploring it in relation to the broader visual and literary tradition and to the realities of the lives of the Roma in the 17th-century Netherlands.

This talk is part of a series investigating power dynamics in artworks across the collections. Considering intersections of art and power, our curatorial team discusses how artists engage with social and political crises, use art to upset systems of power, and imagine more equitable futures.

Led by:
Joanna Sheers Seidenstein, Stanley H. Durwood Foundation Curatorial Fellow, Division of European and American Art

Work explored:
Jacques de Gheyn II, Dutch, A Roma Woman with a Child, c. 1604. Brown ink and black chalk on light tan antique laid paper. The Maida and George Abrams Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Gift of George Abrams in memory of Maida Stocker Abrams, 2020.208.