Miseries of Human Life: While Deep in Study and Lost in Thought in the

A tailor in a red cap and blue coat sits cross-legged at his bench, stitching, while a woman balancing a basket of cucumbers on her head cries out at left. A startled boy with a cat and a second woman at right add to the commotion in a cluttered kitchen-workshop with hanging meat and pots.

Look closer: A cat sits by the boy at the lower center, watching the scene.

Artist

Nicolaus Heideloff

Date

October 1807

Medium

Hand-colored etching

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

2715 × 3679 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959