The Pilgrim Mourning His Dead Ass 1800

Benjamin West probably painted "The Pilgrim Mourning His Dead Ass" sometime around the turn of the nineteenth century. West, who was born in Pennsylvania but spent much of his career in Britain, offers a scene that echoes themes in Laurence Sterne's novel "A Sentimental Journey." The image presents a figure overcome with grief at the loss of his animal. This moment of sorrow might seem sentimental today, but it speaks to the period's investment in feeling. It was a time when sensibility, often associated with the feminine, played a key role in how people perceived and engaged with the world. It was considered a virtue to be capable of deep emotion and empathy. In West's painting, the mourning pilgrim serves as a reminder of our capacity for compassion and the connections we form, even with beings outside our own species. It invites us to consider the value of such emotions in a society that often prizes rationality above all else.