The stories behind the paintings

Carl Heinrich Bloch painted Christ on the Cross in 1870 on copper, not canvas, for the King’s Oratory at Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerød. It belongs to the cycle of twenty-three scenes from the life of Christ that he made between 1865 and 1879 for the chapel rebuilt after the fire of December 1859. The picture is now in the Museum of National History at the same castle. A later Bloch, Christ with Mocking Soldier (1880) , looks at the hours before the Cross. This one looks at the hour itself. Quick facts Artist: Carl Heinrich Bloch (1834–1890), Copenhagen Date: 1870 Medium: Oil on copper Collection: Museum of National History, Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerød, Denmark Notable fact: One of twenty-three Life of Christ scenes commissioned after the 1859 fire; paid for by the brewer J. C. Jacobsen Carl Heinrich Bloch, Christ on the Cross, 1870. Oil on copper. Museum of National History, Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerød. Image via the Sapiens Verbum print shop. A chapel that had to be...

A crown twisted from thorns. A reed pressed into his hand like a scepter. A soldier's grin inches from his face. Carl Bloch's Christ with Mocking Soldier (1880) takes a scene the Gospels cover in a few verses and narrows it to two men and a joke that has already stopped being funny — because the man wearing the crown is looking straight out of the canvas, and he is not looking away. Quick facts Artist: Carl Bloch (1834–1890) Date: 1880 Medium: Oil on canvas Collection: BYU Museum of Art, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah (held privately for decades before its rediscovery) Notable fact: Painted the year after Bloch completed his 23-painting cycle on the life of Christ for the chapel at Frederiksborg Castle Carl Bloch, Christ with Mocking Soldier, 1880. Oil on canvas. BYU Museum of Art. Image via the Sapiens Verbum print shop. A Scene the Gospels Sketch in Three Lines Matthew, Mark, and John each give this moment barely a paragraph: Roman soldiers strip Jesus, th...

You have barely "entered" the tavern and already a young man glares at you from the table, two women smile or smirk, and a cat joins the jury. In Carl Bloch's In a Roman Osteria (1866), the joke is on the spectator: the painting looks back. Quick facts Artist: Carl Bloch (1834-1890) Date: 1866 Medium: Oil on canvas Collection: National Gallery of Denmark (SMK), Copenhagen Notable fact: Commissioned by Moritz G. Melchior in Italy; Bloch paints himself in the background with friends Carl Bloch, In a Roman Osteria, 1866. Oil on canvas. Source: SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen. Accession KMS4087. Open Access / Public Domain. Print available from the Sapiens Verbum shop. A Danish Painter's Roman Lunch Bloch, close to patron Moritz G. Melchior and a regular at his Thursday dinners among figures such as Hans Christian Andersen, received the commission on an Italian trip. Melchior wanted something akin to Wilhelm Marstrand's earlier osteria welco...