#houseless

Alfred Stevens (1823-1906)
“What is Called Vagrancy” (1854)
Oil on canvas
Realism
Located in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris France

Thispainting is representative of the early part of Stevens’ career when he was keen on representing the squalor of the time.

Emperor Napoleon III thought the contents so shocking (a woman giving a beggar money to prevent her being locked up with her children by the police, which was the fate of vagrants without income) that he asked to have it removed.

The 1810 Penal Code considered begging a crime and vagrancy likewise. While beggars were not clearly defined, vagrants were clearly identified as “unscrupulous people [i.e.] those who have no certain place of residence or means of subsistence and who do not exercise any trade or profession.”

During the Second Rep1ublic, the electoral law of May 31, 1850 further alienated beggars and vagabonds, separating the homeless from the rest of society by prolonging the period of residence required in order to be able to vote in a particular commune or canton, from six months (law of March 15, 1849) to three years.