Krantenjongen 1898

William Nicholson created this woodcut titled 'Krantenjongen', or 'Newsboy', at an unknown date. It shows a young boy, presumably a news vendor, clutching a stack of papers on a city street. The image makes use of the visual codes we associate with the working class, in the form of the boy's cap, his posture and position in the urban environment, and the suggestion of poverty. Nicholson was an English artist, and this image reflects a growing awareness of the social problems associated with industrial capitalism during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Europe. Consider, for example, the work of social reformers such as Charles Booth and Seebohm Rowntree. The woodcut technique is also important here, as it enabled the mass production of images, meaning it was more likely to reach a wider audience than painting or sculpture. To understand this work better, we might look at the history of the illustrated press, considering the readership and the kind of social issues that it addressed. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.