Christ in Gethsemane, 1890

On this canvas we see unfolding the opening scene of Jesus Christ’s atonement from Matthew 26:36-44, Mark 14:32-41, and Luke 22:39-46. The spiritual drama of Gethsemane is emphasized with spot lighting and the intense wringing of hands, yet Christ’s sensitively rendered face remains placid. The features of a garden have been reduced to flinty stones and a prickly thorn bush that prefigures a crown of thorns. The picture’s success lies in the appropriateness of its tone: the transformation of abject agony into a palatable scene of devotion. Christ’s solitude may well reflect Hofmann’s own isolation and reliance upon faith; his wife, who was often in poor health, passed away only months after the completion of Gethsemane, leaving Hofmann a widower for nearly 20 years Like many of Hofmann’s religious paintings, Christ in Gethsemane soon found a home in an American collection. Purchased by John Zeile, so treasured was the picture that it was the only object saved from the collector’s home when it was destroyed in the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906.