The Abraham Men

More work on the Abraham Men.

The Abraham Men or Abram men were beggars in the Tudor and Stuart periods of England. They claimed to be released inmates from Bedlam. They may have been mentally ill, or they may have only pretended to be so in order to get away with begging and thievery and other sorts of mischief. Here I have one shouting and playing at being mad, beating himself about the head. The one on the right has been plucked from my sketchbook, where I have been drawing a person with a stick horse just lately. The tall fellow in the middle is in a hospital-type gown and it seems he may have stolen a pig's head from the local butcher. Or maybe he is divining with it. There is a fairy tale that includes a man pretending to divine the location of a lost jewel with a pig's head he'd recently stolen. In truth, he was hiding in the barnyard and saw the servant girl hid her mistress's jewel. I guess that struck my fancy and I've been hiding the figure away in my head for a while. It's "The Story of the Home-Bred Boy" a Tibetan fairytale. Find it if you can.

The Abraham Men

A little more progress on my three mad beggars. The Abraham men were itinerant beggars during the Stuart and Tudor periods that pretended to be escapees from Bedlam.

The Abraham Men

Working on my middle beggar, tall and pale, wearing a gown reminiscent of hospital gowns. Maybe he's stolen this pig's head. Maybe he is blind.

The Abraham Men

Work continues on The Abraham Men. I am trying to keep in mind how filthy it must've been in medieval through enlightenment times. I am trying to make the skin weathered, red, raw, and dirty, as best as I'm able. If you want to know what Abraham Men are, you can see Friday's post!

The Abraham Men

The Abraham Men or Abram men were beggars in the Tudor and Stuart periods of England. They claimed to be released inmates from Bedlam. They may have been mentally ill, or they may have only pretended to be so in order to get away with begging and thievery and other sorts of mischief. Here I have one shouting and playing at being mad, beating himself about the head. The one on the right has been plucked from my sketchbook, where I have been drawing a person with a stick horse just lately. The tall fellow in the middle is in a hospital-type gown and it seems he may have stolen a pig's head from the local butcher. Or maybe he is divining with it. There is a fairy tale that includes a man pretending to divine the location of a lost jewel with a pig's head he'd recently stolen. In truth, he was hiding in the barnyard and saw the servant girl hid her mistress's jewel. I guess that struck my fancy and I've been hiding the figure away in my head for a while. It's "The Story of the Home-Bred Boy" a Tibetan fairytale. Find it if you can.

Sketchbook

 A sketch for Abraham Men, a painting I'm planning. I've managed to use a character, the man with a stick horse, whose been rattling around my sketchbook for a few weeks. Abraham men were a class of beggars claiming to be lunatics allowed out of restraint in the Tudor and Stuart periods of England. They were pretending to be mad to palliate public's view of their begging and petty thievery.

I've returned to my theme of "All Fours", but this time I've elongated my person and given him more of a hunched animal appearance. I haven't decided how many riders to give him.