Lourdes 1894

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen's lithograph, ‘Lourdes,’ depicts a crowd of pilgrims seeking miracles at the famous French Catholic shrine. Drawn in France at the turn of the century, the print reveals the visual codes of social critique. In the late 19th and early 20th century, France saw increased secularization and political tension between conservatives and progressives. Steinlen was an anarchist, and his commentary on the Roman Catholic Church is evident. Rather than show the glory of the holy site, Steinlen is instead mocking the Church as an institution. The pilgrims are depicted as a mass of poverty-stricken, desperate figures. The man standing next to the Virgin Mary is not a religious figure, but a rich, bourgeois man in a suit. His presence hints at the commercialization of faith, and perhaps also the hypocrisy of the church as an institution. As historians, we interpret such imagery through close visual analysis and contextual research, exploring how institutions, social conditions, and political ideologies shape the artwork's meaning.