Fritz von Uhde (1848-1911) is the German artist whose paintings we'll reflect upon this Lent. Here is his self-portrait — palette in hand and with his high maintenance mustache. The 19th century is called , The century of the mustache. I'd say Fritz cultivated his mustache while he was in the military. There are photographs of the artist where this male plumage has gone to wreck and ruin.
The artist has a pleasant face, but is there sadness in his eyes. His wife died young, (when he was 38) leaving him with three daughters. Maybe in this painting we can see something of that felt-loss.
O Lord, you search me and you know me,
you know my resting and my rising,
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You mark when I walk or lie down,
all my ways lie open to you.
Before ever a word is on my tongue
you know it, O Lord, through and through.
Psalm 138:1-4
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But before we set out into Lent with daily posts reflecting on forty some-odd paintings, there are two terms that might be helpful to our understanding and appreciating this artist's work. Naturalism is a late 19th century movement in art (it's heyday 1870's-1880's) which attempts to present the subject matter without concerns for established and acceptable norms or without notions of what others consider acceptably beautiful. Naturalism depicts people in their natural world and environment.
The other useful word is genre. A broad definition of genre says that there are five types of subject matter in painting: historical painting, portraiture, landscape painting and still life. Then there is the definition of genre which is both broad and narrow, depicting aspects of the everyday lives of ordinary people engaged in common activities. This type of depiction is not new — even in ancient Egypt and throughout the Middle Ages we have paintings which depict people pruning vines, tending animals, harvesting, monks copying books, etc.
Fritz von Uhde is a master of genre painting, so much so that he depicts ancient gospel accounts taking place as if in his contemporary world. It is also said that Fritz von Uhde brought plein air (outdoor) painting to Germany.
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Returning for a moment to the artist's self-portrait — in Christianity God has a human face. This is Jesus Christ. Faces matter. The violent Christian protesters carrying Jesus Saves banners couldn't have looked into the faces of the officers they mercilessly beat on January 6. Had the gun wielding men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery looked deeply at his face they would have seen his terror. I'm thinking of the priest or deacon who distributes communion while looking over the heads of the parishioners to see how long the line is rather than looking squarely at faces and making eye contact. There are spouses who no longer look deeply into the face of the other. Christianity is a religion of faces and each and all of those faces matters.
Here's a Lenten idea: Every day for forty days I will make eye contact with someone else — even a stranger in a store, the cashier, the fellow stocking shelves, the person getting into the car parked next to mine, someone on an elevator or at the front desk in the doctor's office. Not peering at them of course, but noticing carefully and breaking through the fear of being perceived to be a weirdo. I might be moved to a new depth of prayer. And if any of us should think, "It's impossible to do this today in our dangerous, suspicious, cultural climate," — then we are in a very sad place indeed. I would say, a place of human collapse. But God keep us from another Lent of just giving up candy.
