Christ Receiving the Children (c. 1655): Artwork and History

Christ Receiving the Children (c. 1655) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Sébastien Bourdon (French, 1616–1671).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

In this illustration of an episode from the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament, Jesus (reclining at center) admonishes his disciples not to prevent little children from approaching him. Sébastien Bourdon’s figures wear draperies in the antique fashion, and the setting evokes both ancient Rome and the Christian Holy Land. One of the most versatile and successful 17th-century French painters, Bourdon emulated the rigorous classical style of Nicolas Poussin. Bourdon knew Poussin’s work (such as the painting on view in this gallery) from his early years in Rome. Following Poussin’s compositional principles, Bourdon organized this scene as a series of parallel, stage-like registers, resulting in a calm, geometric order.

Object facts

• Title: Christ Receiving the Children
• Date: c. 1655
• Artist attribution: Sébastien Bourdon (French, 1616–1671)
• Place of origin: France
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 100.3 × 135.2 cm (39 1/2 × 53 1/4 in.); Framed: 120.4 × 153.7 cm (47 3/8 × 60 1/2 in.)
• Type: Painting
• Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
• Reference number: 1959.57

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Eugene A. Davidson

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.