Masters/Carl Bloch/Christ Blessing a Little Child
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This was the first of Bloch’s eight altarpieces, painted in 1873 for the church of Sankt Nikolai in Holbæk. It is nearly four meters tall, made to be seen from the far end of a church.
So Bloch made it simple: one figure in white and one child. Jesus rests His hand on the child’s head, and the child looks straight out at us. A congregation looking up would see a child like their own, blessed.
Select a detail to zoom to it in the painting.
Other masters in room 47, Suffer the Little Children:
Carl Bloch
Christ and the Children, 1865–1879
Oil on copper
Museum of National History, Frederiksborg Castle
One of the 23 King's Oratory paintings
Bernhard Plockhorst
Christ Blessing the Children, 19th century
Painting, shown in an 1899 photographic reproduction
Photograph: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (RP-F-F00701-22)
James Tissot
Suffer the Little Children to Come unto Me, 1886–1894
Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper
Brooklyn Museum, purchased by public subscription (00.159.188)
Harry Anderson
Christ with the Children
Under copyright, so not shown here.
View it on the Gospel Media LibrarySankt Nikolai Kirke, Holbæk, Denmark. Bloch's altarpiece of Christ blessing a little child, 1873, stands above the altar.
Google MapsGoogle EarthImage: Photo by Jürgen Howaldt, via Wikimedia Commons. The work itself is in the public domain.
