Passion Play, Oberammergau
Edward Lamson HENRY
(American, 1841-1919)
Passion Play, Oberammergau
Dateca. 1872
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionsoverall: 20 5/8 × 34 3/4 in. (52.4 × 88.3 cm)
ClassificationPAINTINGS
Credit LineSBMA, Anonymous Gift for the Preston Morton Collection
Object number1961.11
Subject(s)
- Christianity
- performance
- architecture
Collection
- 19th century American
- American
Sub-Collection(s)
- American
On View
On viewCollections
Label TextThis panoramic and unusual crowd scene is considered one of Henry’s most accomplished early works. Henry was known for his nearly documentary abilities as an artist who volunteered to witness and record the events of the Civil War. Depicted here is a ceremonial recreation of the medieval Passion Play, as staged every ten years by the villagers of Oberammergau in the Bavarian Alps, as an expression of gratitude for their deliverance from the Black Plague in 1633. Henry, who trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, as well as under Charles Gleyre and Gustave Courbet in Paris, demonstrates his technical proficiency in this convincing representation of this outdoor event, teeming with onlookers. He has chosen the culmination of the play, the crucifixion, which would have taken place in the waning hours of the afternoon. The many figures are each individualized, including the tiny self-portrait he includes of himself at the rear of the theater on the left. It is possible that the artist relied on photography as a way of recalling these minute details, a practice he was known to make use of as early as 1865.
