''What Our Lord Saw from the Cross'' () is a c. 1890

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

painting by the French painter

James Tissot Jacques Joseph Tissot (; 15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902), anglicized as James Tissot (), was a French painter and illustrator. He was a successful painter of fashionable, modern scenes and society life in Paris before moving to London in 1871 ...

. The work is unusual for its portrayal of the

Crucifixion of Jesus The crucifixion and death of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea, most likely in AD 30 or AD 33. It is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by other ancient sources, and consider ...

from the perspective of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

on the cross, rather than featuring him at the center of the work. The scene shows witnesses, including Jesus' followers ( the women and the

disciple whom Jesus loved The phrase "the disciple whom Jesus loved" ( grc, ὁ μαθητὴς ὃν ἠγάπα ὁ Ἰησοῦς, ho mathētēs hon ēgapā ho Iēsous, label=none) or, in John 20:2; "the other disciple whom Jesus loved" ( grc, τὸν ἄλλον μα� ...

), participants, and bystanders; of Jesus' own body only the feet can be seen, at the bottom of the picture. The painting is part of the series ''The Life of Jesus Christ'', a series of 350 watercolors of events from the Gospels completed by Tissot. He prepared for these by extensive travels in the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

to study details of contemporary life, which he used in the paintings. Prints were also published of the compositions. The whole watercolor series, completed between 1886 and 1894, was acquired in 1900 by the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Cro ...

in New York.

References

External links

View from the Cross
by Ronald Klip (artbible.info) category:Paintings depicting the Crucifixion of Jesus Paintings by James Tissot Horses in art Paintings depicting Mary Magdalene Paintings of the Virgin Mary Watercolor paintings {{19C-painting-stub