He sits deep in thought, his finger at his lips.
Bible in art · Luke
The Man Who Hoards (L'homme qui thésaurise)
James Tissot · 1886–1894
Brooklyn Museum, New York
The rich man of the parable sits among his sacks of grain, heaped all around him and spilling open in the foreground. He wears a yellow headcloth and a green robe and bites his finger as he thinks.
Over him, so faint that it is almost part of the wall, stands a grey figure holding a long sword — Tissot’s way of showing that this very night his life will be required of him.
From the text
- “I will tear down my barns and will build bigger ones” (Luke 12:18)
- “This very night your life will be required of you” (Luke 12:20)
The artist’s own
- A pale figure with a sword standing over him
- Sacks of grain filling the room
Details
The rich man
The figure with a sword
A ghostly figure holds a sword over him.
The grain
An open sack full of yellow grain.
Spilled
Grain heaped on a cloth in the foreground.
James Tissot, French, 1836–1902. Brooklyn Museum, New York (Purchased by public subscription, 00.159.79) · Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper · Brooklyn Museum (Commons file page, «Permission»): "This image was uploaded by the Brooklyn Museum as a content partnership, and is considered to have no known copyright restrictions by the institutions of the Brooklyn Museum." — "No known copyright restrictions".