The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1908-04-24
THE TIssoT PICTURES

In an article entitled "Why l Paint
ed the Life of Jesus Christ" by the
famous artist J. James Tissot, he
says:
4 wanted to know the truth-to see
Jesus Of Nazareth as He walked and
talked in His native haunts. And then
to give back to the millions of my fell
low Christians this real conception Of
the Founder of Faith. If spent ten
years in the H0'Y Land, treading in
The very footsteps of the Savior, it
was only that | myself might better
realize all that He was, all that He
did before | gave it TO the world. Day
by day, hour by hour, the facts grew
/ dearer TO me. | was moved by the
/ consciousness that l was looking at
! the same rocks, the same trees, that
! had been reflected in the eyes of the
! Savior, and as | walked along those
paths in which He must have trod,
could not always restrain the tears
Il had studied the Gospel until
knew them by heart, and had located
! as nearly as l might every act of that
Divine One who came on earth to save
mankind. 1t was necessary for me 10
| restore the Temple of Jerusalem in
order that | might place the Child Je-
sus there. To do this properly, I had
to study the Talmud of the Jews, as
well as the Old Testament, and exam
inc the ruins of the ancient buildings
found beneath modern Jerusalem. To
understand the life of Jesus, it is re-
quisite to grasp the civilization of the
Jews of His time. All of this I have
tried to put into my pictures. Over
and over again | visited each sancti-
fed spot. wandered along the
banks Of the Jordan and saw the spot
where John had baptized his Master.
walked around the shores of Lake
Tiberius seeking those rocks from
which tradition said, Christ had
preached. l saw the spot where
Peters boat had been mOored, and at
last understood why he had gone up
into the boat to preach, for the shore /
was so level that there was no other /,
elevation from which Jesus could |
have spoken.
Il have grouped my pictures in sew
eraI sections, devoted to the Holy |
Childhood" the Ministry. Holy |
Week, the Passions" and the Res
direction" to avoid all confusion and /
present the career of Jesus on earth |
in its natural order. My desire was
to make Him live again before the
eyes of all men in order that Chris !
tians might understand Him better |
and worship Him more truly. So that |!
the greatest possible number of per- !
sons might see and even own the pic
lures, have had them reproduced in
book form.
81 have found 1t necessary to put
aside all Of the pictures of Jesus paint |
ed by the great artists of various ages
not because they were not great paint
ings, but because they were not the |
Christ. 1t is impossible to go back |
1900 years in the West and try to re-
produce the life of that distand period |
with accuracy; but in the orient, |
where customs change slowly, where |
progress has been almost entirely IN !
known, it was not impossible, having |
before me the descendants of the very |
people among whom Christ had lived, |
to paint the pictures of their ances-
tors.
There is not a stroke of my pic
lures, not a color which is not based |
upon good reasons. If l have painted |
Jesus in a flowing robe of white, it is
because He could have worn no other |
color, and the all-envelOping garb, ira |
dition states, was necessary if the |
Christ was to avoid creating the SEN
sation which His shining body would |!
have brought about.
l have begun at the very beginning |
of that marvellous history, when it
was revealed to the parents of John
the Baptist that he was to be the fore
runner of the Messiah.
Jesus has been kept too far away
from the minds and hearts of men. If !
by my pen and pencil l have made
Him more real to the millions who
worship Him from afar, I have ac-
complished my purpose. !
"The very thing which every Chris |
tan most desires-tO know all he
can about Jesus and his life-has
been denied him heretofore. If all men
could only know how great was the
sorrow and suffering of the Son of
God, devotion to Christianity would !
be universal instead of partial.
1T is in the hope that l, perhaps, /