Pope Leo XIII's Jubilee. The Pilgrim (old style). The Pilgrim (new style) thumbnail 1
On loan

  • On short term loan out for exhibition

Pope Leo XIII's Jubilee. The Pilgrim (old style). The Pilgrim (new style)

Drawing
1893 (made)
Artist/Maker
Aubrey Beardsley (artist)
Place of origin
London (made)

A satirical drawing depicting two images of pilgrims. The image on the left depicts a pilgrim of the old style dressed in a robe and sandals and walking across a landscape. The image on the right depicts a pilgrim of the new style sitting in a carriage in a tweed coat and hat.

Object details

Categories
Drawings
Satire
Object type
Drawing
TitlePope Leo XIII's Jubilee. The Pilgrim (old style). The Pilgrim (new style) (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Indian ink over graphite on paper
Paper
Ink
Graphite
Drawing
Brief description
Drawing by Aubrey Beardsley, 'Pope Leo XIII's Jubilee. The Pilgrim (old style); The Pilgrim (new style)', drawing for illustration on p.270 of 'The Pall Mall Budget', 23 February 1893, Indian ink over graphite on paper, London, 1893
Physical description
A satirical drawing depicting two images of pilgrims. The image on the left depicts a pilgrim of the old style dressed in a robe and sandals and walking across a landscape. The image on the right depicts a pilgrim of the new style sitting in a carriage in a tweed coat and hat.
Dimensions
  • Height: 18.5cm
  • Width: 18.1cm
Pasted to sheet: 25.4 x 27.5 cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'AVB' (Signed twice with monogram)
  • 'Aubrey Beardsley' (Inscribed in blue ink)
  • (Inscribed in graphite with a note)
  • (With the mark of the collection of Ronald Searle)
Credit line
Purchased with Art Fund support
Object history
Provenance: R. A. Harari
Subjects depicted
Satire
Pilgrims
Bibliographic references
  • Calloway, Stephen. Aubrey Beardsley. London: V & A Publications, 1998. 224pp, illus. ISBN: 1851772197.
  • Linda Gertner Zatlin, Aubrey Beardsley : a catalogue raisonne. New Haven : Yale University Press, [2016] 2 volumes (xxxi, [1], 519, [1] pages; xi, [1], 547, [1] pages) : illustrations (some color) ; 31 cm. ISBN: 9780300111279 The entry is as follows: 294 Pope Leo XII’s Jubilee By c.18 May 1893 Victoria and Albert Museum, London (E.334-1972) Pen, brush and Indian ink over traces of pencil on off-white wove paper, laid down on card; 7 5/16 x 7 1/4 inches (190 x 182 mm); signed INSCRIPTIONS: Recto inscribed by the artist in ink: [monogram under each figure]: AVB / [at upper left]: THE PILGRIM / (OLD STYLE); / [at upper RIGHT]: THE PILGRIM / (NEW STYLE); [in pencil in another hand accross bottom]: 4 have by 6 tonight / [in ink]: Aubrey Beardsley / [embossed stamp of]: Ronald Searle / [in pencil]: 18 PROVENANCE: G. R. Halkett; bt. R. A. Walker in 1913; bt. Herbert von Garvens (1913); …; Elkin Matthews (bookseller, Bishop Stortford) August 1944 Catalogue 113 (14) and June 1947 Catalogue 106 (56); Ronald Searle;... Victoria and Albert Museum. EXHIBITION: London 1966-8 (39, exhibited only in New York), Tokyo 1983 (4); Rome 1985 (18.5). LITERATURE: Vallance 1897 (p.203), 1909 (no. 55.vi); Elkin Matthews c.1944 Catalogue 113 (item 14); Gallatin 1945 (no. 265,266); Reade 1967 (p.315 n.48); Samuels Lasner 1995 (no.11). REPRODUCED: Pall Mall Budget 23 February 1893 (p.270); Uncollected Work 1925 (no.56); Reade 1967 (plate 50). Beardsley made this drawing to accompany a discussion of pilgrims in the Pall Mall Budget article ‘Leo the Thirteenth’s Jubilee’. The ‘Old Style’ pilgrim is similar in style to chapter headings Beardsley was simultaneously making for Le Morte Darthur, he wears ‘a palmer’s costume with hat and staff and stands in front of hills, a tree and the rising sun. The ‘New Style’ Pilgrim is muffled in an ulster and deerstalker cap in the corner seat of a railway carriage which is passing through flooded country amid heavy rain’ (Elkin Matthews c.1944 Catalogue 113, item 14). The ‘Old Style’ pilgrim is bent over like Merlin in Merlin and Nimue (no.430 below) and figures in some chapter headings for Le Morte Darthur (for example, nos. 559, 589 below). The Matthews description adds that the drawing shows ‘certainty of line and is clever’. For further comment about Beardsley’s drawings for the Pall Mall Budget, see 274 above.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.334-1972

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O685594/pope-leo-xiiis-jubilee-the-drawing-aubrey-beardsley/
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