Johann Köler

There are few artists whose every work is an event. Johann Köler’s uncompromising and demanding approach suggests that each of his paintings is in some way important. This large-scale arrangement of the head of Christ was probably painted in Paris, when Köler was preparing one of his best-known works for the altarpiece of St John’s Church in Cēsis (Võnnu). In this arrangement, Köler has worked with the most important part of the altarpiece, the head and face of Christ, which are meant to be the most dramatic expression of Christ’s suffering, and thus one of the foundations of Christian doctrine. Rather than overt dramatism, however, we see a quiet tension, acceptance of one’s fate, self-sacrifice for the sake of humanity, and surrender to God.
It was common for Köler to carry out a number of extensive preliminary works for large commissions, which, due to their level of detail, can be considered as separate works. In his preparatory works, he could often be a little more vivid in his brushstrokes and livelier in his approach than in the finished versions. Köler himself must have been pleased with what he found, as he did not paint any further, but confined himself to the face of Christ. In this way, this work is a kind of brief summary of an important theme in Köler’s oeuvre, since he has painted Christ on the cross several times. In this work, we see the most important focal point of all these paintings, the face of Christ, which was so charged and meaningful to the artist that he dedicated a large-scale arrangement to capture the right tonality.
The work was part of the collection of the German-Russian architect Maximilian von Messmacher, along with several other Köler paintings.