A small figure stands alone on a rise in the distance.
Bible in art · Matthew
Jesus Prays on the Mount of Olives
Gustave Doré · 1866 (designs for La Sainte Bible, Tours); this printing 1873–1874
National Library of Poland, Warsaw
This plate carries no legible engraver’s name, only Doré’s signature at the lower left. Almost all of it is trees: dark trunks and foliage rise to the top of the sheet and part only once, to let in a pale night sky.
In that gap, far off on a rise, stands Jesus alone, a small figure with his face lifted. In the foreground three disciples lie asleep on the grass: one turned away, one propped on an elbow, one stretched out on his back.
From the text
- “Sit here while I go over there and pray” (Matthew 26:36)
- He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee (Matthew 26:37)
- “Then Jesus returned to the disciples and found them sleeping” (Matthew 26:40)
The artist’s own
- Jesus standing upright; the text says “He fell facedown and prayed”
- A dense wood of tall, thin trees for the garden
- The pale sky as the only source of light
Details
Jesus
The opening
The trees part to show a pale night sky.
A sleeper
One disciple lies turned away from us.
Another sleeper
He lies on his back against a tree trunk.
Gustave Doré, French, 1832–1883. National Library of Poland (Biblioteka Narodowa), Warsaw — «Pismo Święte Starego i Nowego Testamentu», vol. 2, Warsaw: M. Glücksberg, 1874 (acc. 75.267 A) · Wood engraving after Gustave Doré’s design · National Library of Poland (Polona): the record of the volume gives the licence «Domena Publiczna» (Public Domain), «copyrightProtected»: false; the scan was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons by the library itself («Polona Upload», GLAM-Wiki partnership: “This file was uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as part of a GLAM-Wiki partnership between the National Library of Poland and Wikimedia Polska”), linking its Polona record.