The "Gesima" Sundays and Fritz von Uhde

Fritz von Uhde with palette and moustache

 

On the old liturgical calendar, today is called Septuagesima Sunday. It is the first of three Sundays that serve as a kind of countdown — roughly 70, 60, 50 days until Easter. They are sometimes referred to as the "front porch" to Lent — a heads up as Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, March 2 this year. 

Years ago these Sundays introduced the penitential time with the disappearance of the the Gloria and Alleluia at Mass, the change to purple vestments and the start of some fasting. They were dropped from the liturgical calendar in 1969. Though in 2014 the Polish National Catholic Church reinstated them. I wonder why? Perhaps because the world is moving so fast, these Sundays offer us a pause. Perhaps to direct our thoughts to something other than the contentious, ugly, violent news that burdens and disturbs us everyday. How can it be that along the Ukraine-Russia border there is the threat of yet another costly war? Why haven't we evolved past war?

To that end every year during Lent I find an artist whose paintings offer us some respite. The posts are simply a priest's reflections on forty paintings — one for each day of Lent. They are not art-critical, art historical or dogmatic exposes — but observations, imaginings, attentive wonderings. The Sunday Intercessions posted each Thursday are the only interruption.  In 2017 we saw the paintings of the classical Russian landscape painter, Isaac Levitan. In 2019 the Danish-French Impressionist painter Camille Pissaro (1830-1903). Lent of 2020 the paintings from the Passion Cycle of Duccio di Buoninsegna's Maesta. Lent last year, the Russian realist painter Vasily Polenov (1844-1927).

This year I'd like to introduce the German painter Fritz von Uhde (1848-1911). He is called a genre painter. Genre painting depicts ordinary people in every day situations. The artist is also known for his painting of religious subjects in a time when religion was falling out of fashion. His style lay between realism and impressionism. He was once know as Germany's outstanding impressionist and was one of the first painters to introduce outdoor painting (plein air) in his country.

But choosing Fritz von Uhde (Yew-dah) presents a great challenge for me — beyond a couple of online articles there is nothing published in English about his work. So I'm on my own more than any previous Lent. But that's fine — I see it as an opportunity to look more closely. I hope you will join me. 

A final thought. Isn't it time I chose a female painter? Yes! But there are not many to choose from. I have discovered Mary Cassatt, Marie Bracquemont, Bertha Morisot and Eva Gonzales. But there's a problem. Their paintings are mostly of women in an endless variety of 19th century dresses and poses with children. Women could not be admitted to art schools or the male world of art exhibition. Women's work was routinely rejected. Women were not allowed to wander around cities and countryside in search of landscape sites. Camille Pissarro could sit on a street all day and paint four paintings facing four directions. No 19th century woman would have been allowed to do that. So women were consigned to painting living rooms, at-home studios, bedrooms and gardens. Even if I were to combine the work of the four female artists mentioned above, I can't identify forty paintings that offer subject possibilities for the kind of reflecting we do here. That saddens me. The world is poorer for it. But I'll keep searching.