A homeless family pulling a covered wagon up a steep mountain side in Tyrol; on the path they pass two priests in cassocks, carrying crosses. Wood engraving, 1879, after M. Schmid.

'"Homeless",The picture by M. Schmid, in the exhibition at the French Gallery, which has been copied for the engraving this week presented as an extra supplement, may be supposed to represent a party of rustic peasantry in some Alpine or other mountainous country, who have been expelled from their native village by the scourge of war. The humble family--husband and wife, children and aged grandmother--have packed a few remaining chattels and household stores into the cart, which they are vainly attempting to drag up the hilly road, their horse being taken, probably, for the service of the enemy's army, and no other means of carriage being left, in the distressed condition of the land. They do not seem likely to travel far with such an encumbrance; and it is to be feared that they will soon lose even that small portion of their modest property which had been spared by the rude hand of military rapacity, and which alone could preserve them from utter destitution. They are here met by the parish priest or Curé, in company with a friar or monk of some religious order, who look with compassion on the sad plight of these unhappy fugitives, but who do not seem to know any way of helping them in the present need. The scene is a pathetic example of woes and miseries too often brought upon mankind by the wicked ambition of kings, emperors, and statesmen, whose schemes of self-aggrandisement are commonly wrought out through warlike operations at the cost of the poorer folk.'--Illustrated London News, 5 July 1879, p. 14

Apparently painted by Schmid in Munich in criticism of the church in the Tirol, his native land

[London] : [publisher not identified], [1879]

1 print : wood engraving ; image 31.5 x 42.2 cm

Homeless. From the picture by M. Schmid, in the French gallery, Pall Mall East. Extra supplement to the Illustrated London News, July 5, 1879

Wellcome Collection 32198i

After a painting by Mathias Schmid, called 'Die Karrenzieher' or 'Karrenzieher in den Alpen', painted in April 1872; reproduced in Die Gartenlaube 1873 p. 619 as 'Arme Leute, fromme Leute', with poem p. 621