Carl Bloch

Carl Bloch (1834–1890) was born and died in Copenhagen, trained under Wilhelm Marstrand, and worked in Denmark for most of his career as a history painter. His reputation now rests almost entirely on the cycle of twenty-three scenes from the life of Christ painted for the chapel at Frederiksborg Castle. They are unusual among nineteenth-century religious paintings for their restraint: the light is plain, the settings are ordinary, and the emotional weight is carried by faces and gestures rather than by spectacle. That plainness is why they have travelled so far beyond Denmark — they are among the most reproduced images of Christ in the world, used across denominations by people who have never heard his name. Five works here, including Gethsemane, the Burial of Christ, the Sermon on the Mount, and Let the Children Come unto Me.