Straat-roeper / Crieurs de rue 1866 - 1902

Franciscus Antonius Beersmans created this print, "Straat-roeper / Crieurs de rue," a colourful tableau of street vendors, using ink on paper. The work is structured through a grid of individual scenes, each framed as a miniature stage. Notice the use of simplified forms, with figures delineated by bold outlines and filled with flat areas of colour, predominantly yellow and green. This graphic style reduces each character to an archetype, a signifier of their trade. Beersmans employs a system of visual codes. The vendors become legible as symbols within a larger socio-economic structure. The arrangement of the scenes presents a taxonomy of urban life, a structured overview. This challenges traditional hierarchies by granting equal visual weight to each occupation, from the seller of matches to the purveyor of brimstone. The work functions almost as a proto-encyclopedia, a visual index of the city’s workforce. It is a formal exercise, not just in representation, but in organizing and understanding the social landscape.