I was in a bookstore the other day with my girlfriend and I saw a little frame with the classic picture of Jesus in it. It is the picture where a semi-profile is shown, Jesus is white, longish, wavy hair in back, mustache, etc. It’s the picture that it often in frames, in homes, etc.
My question is this - who is the artist and did someone pose for it? Also, how long has this picture been around?
I’d prefer not to get into the whole question of what Jesus looks like - let’s face it, that won’t get resolved here. Just curious about this particular picture. I’ll keep poking around online for a link to the exact picture.
There have been thousands of paintings depicting Jesus, so we can’t really guess the specific artist you mean.
Some of the painters in question used images of Jesus that they already had in their heads, but most have used various male models, few of whom are famous.
Is this the painting you had in mind? If so, it’s Head of Christ by Warner Sallman (1897-1968). It’s probably the best-known modern painting of Christ.
According to The People’s Almanac Presents The 20th Century, Sallman painted it in 1924. Nobody posed for it. Sallman woke up in the middle of the night with that image in mind, after a frustrating day of trying to come up with a depiction of Christ for a magazine illustration.
Hmmm. Double-checking myself, I realized that the website says it was painted in 1941, not 1924. I don’t know which to believe. But is that the picture you had in mind?
Eh, I don’t see where the website says it was painted in 1941. It says that in 1941 someone formed a company to publish his art. However, I’m running across other websites that give both 1940 and 1941 as the date.
Looks like this may be the source of the 1924 date.
About 2/3 of the way down this page, on the Vatican’s site (vatican.va), there’s a very brief synopsis on how the modern image of Jesus evolved. It’s the section entitled The Portrait of Jesus. I’m sure there are better, more complete descriptions out there, but hopefully this is a start.
After reading DDG’s post, I went back to the book I cited above, and read more carefully this time. DDG is right. The similar charcoal work was done in 1924, and Head of Christ in 1940.
After reading DDG’s post, I went back to the book I cited above, and read more carefully this time. DDG is right. The similar charcoal work was done in 1924, and Head of Christ in 1940.
A few months back, I saw a documentary about depictions of Jesus, and the politics of those who commissioned them. I recall that one group was rather unhappy with the Sallman image, believing that it looked too feminine.
Tried to find said documentary, and the best I could come up with was The Face: Jesus in Art. Doesn’t sound like the one I recall.
Interestingly, when I entered “jesus painting feminine” into Google, I got a different controversy about a feminine Jesus: National Catholic Reporter Jesus 2000.
NCR is a pretty neat publication - they are pretty liberal. I have a good friend on staff there. I think it’s pretty cool they didn’t pick a conventional pic.
Slight hijack-
I applaud NCR’s choice, but I am curious about NCR. Is it regarded by many Catholics as properly represntative of them? Or, does it speak only for a small number of people?
Some artists prefer a live model. Some work from a purely mental image.
The film The Favor, The Watch, And The Very Big Fish tells the story of a man (Jeff Goldblum) who is chosen to portray Jesus in a series of Biblical photographs, and how his life is changed. I recommend it.
Has any model or actor ended up typecast as Jesus?
