John Thomas Smith, Two Blind Beggars, etching (1816). Dimensions 174 x 125mm

Wellcome Library no 16451i.

 Smith’s portrait of two blind beggars, drawn from life, invokes an episode of recurrent interest to contemporary artists and poets (including Wordsworth) of blind people bearing their written stories, which they could not read or author, to elicit arms.  These representations emphasise how blind people, prior to the introduction of embossed writing systems, may have been marginalised within an increasingly literate society in which moral and economic weight was placed on the ability to read and decipher text.  In his biographical note to the drawing, Smith expresses concern that this ‘cunning’ man exploits his disability, suggesting an implicit prejudice against visually-impaired people.

 

 

References:

John Thomas Smith, Vagabondiana; or, anecdotes of Mendicant Wanderers through the streets of London (London: 1817)

William Wordsworth, The Prelude: The Four Texts (1798, 1799, 1805, 1850), ed. by Jonathan Wordsworth (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1995), Book VII.

Object Description:

This black and white etched print depicts two beggars, both with hats in hands. They appear to be standing on a road in front of a paved street. The beggar on the right hand side is crouched low on his knees, turned towards the second man on the left hand side. His head burrows into his scarf, his eyes are closed, and a cane rests on the floor at his knees. He wears a top hat, the rim of which is frayed. He appears to wear a long cord around his neck. In his right hand he holds out another hat with the rim uppermost like a receptacle. The second man stands upright, clasping a hat in his right hand with the rim facing the viewer like a receptacle, a cane in his other hand. He faces forward. He wears a cap: his hair is curled, he has a moustache and his eyes are white. He is dressed in a long, frayed coat, which reaches to below his mid-calf, above the top of his boots. Around his neck is hung a placard that reaches from his chest to the base of his stomach, the top half of which contains a drawing of a male figure in an oval frame, the bottom half contains writing (not discernible). There is an inscription above the head of the kneeling man which reads ‘London, Published as the Act directs by John Thomas Smith, December 1^st 1815. No 4 Chandos Street Covent Garden’ [description end].