Pilgrim in the Woods
Carl Blechen (German, 1798–1840)
1825
- Medium
- Lithograph in black and blue on cream wove paper
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Image: 22.6 × 30.8 cm (8 15/16 × 12 3/16 in.); Sheet: 34.3 × 46 cm (13 9/16 × 18 1/8 in.)
- Culture
- Germany
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Throughout his career, Carl Blechen often returned to the theme of a pilgrim at a shrine in the woods. In this depiction, the religious shrine, trees, and dark landscape loom over the praying pilgrim, producing a melancholic mood. The emotional tenor of the scene is further enhanced by the lithograph’s pale green tint. Blechen used two stones to create this print, one with green ink for the background and the other bearing a drawing of the primary image. Though the landscape is gloomy, the shrine and its surroundings glow with the highlights produced as the artist scraped away passages on the tint stone. Blechen, who was influenced by Caspar David Friedrich, utilized this contrast of light and dark to express the abiding connection between nature and religion.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
