Ruige Keet (Rough Kate)

This hand-colored etching depicts a working-class woman in a Rotterdam doorway, identified by Dutch text as 'Keet the Mosselwife'—a mussel seller. The print exemplifies 18th-century Dutch satirical tradition, where street vendors and lower-class figures appeared as subjects. The detailed etching technique and moralizing verses below reflect a genre inherited from Hogarth and practiced across Northern Europe—social commentary through character studies. This tradition of prints based on occupation and urban life would evolve into the popular prints and graphic narratives that preceded modern comics.