The Vigilant One
1816
Medium
Lithograph in black on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 27 × 19.6 cm (10 11/16 × 7 3/4 in.); Sheet: 35.3 × 26.6 cm (13 15/16 × 10 1/2 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
96305
Art Historical Context
Behold *The Vigilant One*, a striking 1816 lithograph by French artist Pierre Guérin, housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings Department. Rendered in black ink on cream wove paper, this work measures 27 × 19.6 cm for the image alone, with a larger sheet of 35.3 × 26.6 cm. Guérin, a prominent Neoclassical painter and teacher to future Romantics like Delacroix, ventured into printmaking during lithography's exciting early years—just two decades after its invention around 1798. Lithography revolutionized art by allowing artists to draw directly on limestone with greasy crayo...