Pilgrim Surrounded by Young Women

Thomas Stothard was a prolific illustrator, painter and designer, who trained at the Royal Academy, London. “Pilgrim Surrounded by Young Women” is a preparatory study for an illustration for Italy, a compilation of poems by English Romantic poet Samuel Rogers. Stothard contributed nineteen vignettes for the 1830 publication and J.M.W. Turner contributed the remaining twenty-five. The book’s preface states, “With regard to the embellishments of this volume, they require no praise of his [the Author]. The two Artists, who have contributed so much to give it a value, would have done honour to any age or country.” This drawing, faithfully reproduced in the volume, corresponds to a poem titled “The Pilgrim.”