Description
The Annunciation
Carl Heinrich Bloch, 1865
In 1865, Carl Heinrich Bloch accepted a commission to create twenty-three paintings depicting the life of Jesus Christ. The works, rendered in oil on copper, took fourteen years to complete. In the King’s Oratory within the Frederiksborg Castle, they still reside there today. Significantly, The Annunciation was the first painting completed for the oratory. As the Christian saga unfolds, the angel Gabriel proclaims to the Virgin Mary that she is the mother of the Savior of the World.
“And in the sixth month the angel Gariel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.”
The Annunciation was displayed in our The Master’s Hand exhibition.
More About Bloch
Carl Bloch was an academic Danish painter who is best known for his paintings depicting the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
He received his artistic training at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Later, while living in Rome for several years, Bloch studied paintings by the great Italian masters.
When he returned to Copenhagen, Bloch quickly established a reputation as a religious painter. This led to major commissions for paintings in churches and chapels of Denmark and Sweden.
His extensive body of work includes over 250 paintings and 78 etchings. Still, Bloch considered his religious works to be his most valuable contributions. His productive career ended early when he died of cancer at the age of only fifty-five.
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