Small Trades

A fascinating look at how trades and occupations—and the people who perform them—have been popularized through prints and photographs Small Trades: Real and Imagined explores the social and cultural significance of everyday occupations, as portrayed in prints and photographs from the early sixteenth to the mid-twentieth century. This beautifully illustrated volume features nearly two hundred works on paper depicting tradespeople—from blacksmiths and bakers to chimney sweeps and grocers—as well as those in less savory professions, such as pickpockets and ratcatchers. Incisive essays uncover the multifaceted intents behind these images, be it laughter, disgust, or voyeuristic admiration. Beyond mere genre scenes or portraits, however, these compelling images by artists such as Abraham Bosse, Annibale Carracci, William Hogarth, Eugène Atget, and August Sander offer fascinating insights into the relationship between class and consumerism, as well as the transformation in social dynamics that followed the dawn of the industrial age. The book concludes with an in-depth look at Irving Penn’s arresting series Small Trades (1950–51) that reveals how these seemingly simple images of ordinary working people became landmarks in the history of twentieth-century photography and icons of modern art.Published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University PressExhibition Schedule:The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York(March 25–August 8, 2027)