The Pilgrims
Medium
Lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 12 5/16 x 8 3/4 in. (31.3 x 22.2 cm) Image: 8 1/4 x 6 1/2 in. (21 x 16.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959
Accession Number
59.500.710
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
"The Pilgrims," a lithograph dated 1826, was created in the circle of Louis Léopold Boilly, with involvement from Jules Boilly and printer Delpech. Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of Drawings and Prints, the sheet measures just over 12 by 8 inches. Boilly, celebrated for his lively genre scenes of everyday French life, embraced lithography early in its development as a way to reach wider audiences beyond the elite. Lithography, invented only a few decades earlier, allowed artists to draw directly on stone and produce affordable, high-quality prints with remarkable tonal range and fine detail. In this, the medium captures the quiet determination of female pilgrims—girls and women rendered withilly’s characteristic warmth and observation—suggesting a moment of shared journey and devotionCreated during the Bourbon Restoration, the print reflects a renewed interest in religious and communal travel after years of upheaval. Its modest scale and accessible technique made such scenes available to middle-class collectors, preserving a vivid record of 19th-century social customs.
About the Artist
Louis Léopold Boilly|Jules Boilly|Delpech · 1761–1845
Comment on works: Genre; Portraits