Gesù, Marta e Maria

"Le Christ chez Marthe et Marie" is a painting by Eugène Buland dated 1882. Presented at the Paris Salon that same year, the painting received lukewarm and scornful comments, so much so that the critic Henry Houssaye described it as "so pale and toneless it seems painted with egg whites."

Indeed, what strikes one at first glance is the almost blinding light that floods the scene and envelops the three characters in a refined surreal whiteness. That diaphanous atmosphere, which irritated the Parisian public of the time, has for us today the charm of a manifestation of the divine, captured in a moment of serene daily intimacy. The episode is taken from a passage in the Gospel of Luke (10:38-42), in which Jesus, as a guest of Martha and her sister Mary, announces the blessedness for all those who stop to listen to the word of God, setting aside for a moment the concerns that material life imposes on us.

The work is housed at the Petit Palais - Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris.

Size:
12"x18" inches which equals approximately 30.5x45.7 cm