Jesus in Art - Jesus Ministered to by Angels
James Tissot (French, 1836-1902). Jesus Ministered to by Angels, 1886-1894. Brooklyn Museum.
“and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.”
James Tissot was a French painter born in in 1836 who was famous for painting images of elegant Parisian women of the day.
A visit to a local church changed his future in an unexpected way. He was doing some research for one of his paintings when we had an awakening which would embark him on a ten-year long project, "The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ".
He traveled to Egypt, Syria and Palestine in 1886-1887. There he made sketches of the landscape, architecture, vegetation, costumes, and customs of the Holy Land. He wanted his paintings to reflect as closely as possible the environment in which Jesus had lived. For ten years he worked on his Jesus series to the exclusion of everything else.
In 1894 Tissot exhibited 270 watercolors of the Life of Christ and became the talk of the town.
Tissot would complete a total 350 watercolors which were eventually purchased by the Brooklyn Museum in New York by public subscription.
This is a priceless collection, and we 21st century people are lucky to be able to admire the wonderfully executed scenes of the Life of Christ.
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