Pilgrim by Studio of David Teniers the Younger

Little larger than a postcard, this painting forms a pair with Female Pilgrim. When seen together, the paintings create an imaginary conversation between two travellers walking the same road, the towers silhouetted on the horizon suggesting the distance still to be covered. While the Female Pilgrim carries a rosary and devotional triptych, the man shown here sports the pilgrim’s badge on his cape, with only a water gourd attached to his belt. Clutching his walking staff in one hand, he offers his cap in the other in a request for alms. Pilgrims were familiar figures in the Flemish landscape, and these small studies were perhaps made as preparatory models for prints or paintings that could be sold as commemorative items for those that had trodden similar paths.

Originating in the studio of the Flemish artist David Teniers (1610-90), these images would have been produced in large quantities. Teniers was a master of depicting everyday life, giving his folk characters exaggerated features and sometimes exotic clothing. In contrast, these studies of pilgrims are accurately observed with a sensitivity to their religious message. Here, the man appears stout and diminutive, dwarfed by his staff and grounded by his sturdy walking shoes. His bald head and furrowed brow add a serious air, a departure from the stock figures of Teniers’s style where bawdy expressions and lax morals were often implied.