Daniel Chodowiecki, A Soldier's Wife Begging, 1764

This etching by graphic artist and illustrator Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki (1726–1801) shows a begging woman with a soldier's hat on her head and in her hand. In her right arm, she holds a child. The illustration from 1764 captures the devastation wrought on the civilian population by the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), which plunged families of fallen soldiers into poverty.

Das bettelnde Soldatenweib, etching, 72 x 75 mm, 1764, artist: Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki (1726–1801); source: © Stiftung Wredowsche Zeichenschule Brandenburg/Havel & Thomas Deuer, https://nat.museum-digital.de/object/1128008, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.