Jesus Looking through a Lattice (Jésus regardant à travers le treillis)

When Tissot first debuted his series in Paris in 1894, he preceded the earliest narrative scenes with this mysterious image of Jesus peering through a delicate screen. The artist provided the following verse from the Song of Solomon to accompany this unusual composition: “Behold, he [the beloved] standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice.”

As scholars have noted, the vines heavy with fruit and the sunflowers—traditional Christian symbols—sprout before or climb the thick stone wall. While the grapes evoke the rite of Communion, the bright yellow flowers, which grow toward the sun, suggest Christ’s followers, who turn faithfully to him.

This image of a partially hidden figure also suggests Tissot’s mission in painting the series: through his careful archaeological, anthropological, and historical researches at home and abroad, he sought to reveal the “true” Christ, who had been obscured, he asserted, by the “fancies” of successive centuries of artists.