The Entombment of Christ Fritz von Uhde

Fritz von Uhde was one of the pioneers of German plein air painting and realism, although he made his name as a painter of religious subjects. As a young man, he was taught by the Hungarian painter Mihály Munkácsy, who became a close friend and continued to have a huge influence on Uhde’s later work, especially in terms of painting after models and colour mixing and application techniques. Uhde’s paintings are characterised by a profound social awareness: he portrayed his biblical figures as simple people of their own day, in a poor, peasant setting, creating considerable controversy in church circles as a result.
Uhde probably painted The Entombment of Christ as a sketch for the larger, final version that hangs in the Bautzen museum. Unlike traditional representations of the subject, which depict the moment the body is laid in the stone tomb or sarcophagus, Uhde focuses instead on the group of mourners making their way to the grave. The dramatic effect of the scene is heightened by the grieving Galilean women who accompany the burial party, as well as the light of the torches that illuminate the body of the Redeemer. In the background is the figure of the weeping Mary dressed in her traditional blue robe.

Bianka Izsák-Boda