Christ and the Pharisee Doctor
Georges Rouault
1937
Oil on canvas
23.5 x 23.8 cm

This mysteriously poignant image has been interpreted in two different ways. One interpretation is that the Pharisee’s introspective gaze shows him visibly moved as Christ reaches out to touch him in a gesture of love, compassion, and reconciliation. The other interpretation is that “with all his worldly wisdom, the doctor-intellectual is ill at ease, slightly off-balance, caught behind the black vertical line, which separates him from Christ and bisects the canvas into dark and light blue color planes.” The two figures exist in separate spaces. The downward gaze of Christ is non-confrontational though he reaches out, while the face of the doctor is challenging him. Pride and humility show in each person’s face respectfully, and Rouault in his simple, but bold brush strokes, has been able to capture both.

About the Artist:
Georges Henri Rouault (1871–1958) was a French painter, draughtsman, and printer, whose work is associated with Fauvism and Expressionism. He apprenticed with a stained glass artisan while studying at l’École des Arts Décoratifs, and later studied at the l’École des Beaux-Arts under the famed Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau, who became an influential mentor. Rouault’s knowledge of medieval stained glass influenced his treatment of portraits, landscapes, religious scenes, and still lifes. After an emotional breakdown, a recovered Rouault subsequently became a devout Roman Catholic. “For me, painting is a way to forget life. It is a cry in the night, a strangled laugh,” he once reflected. He displayed an interest in the flaws of society and began frequenting Parisian courts of law to find subjects to paint and for the remainder of his career, much of his work was devoted to the depiction of prostitutes, clowns, and Christ. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and the Tate Gallery in London, among other institutions.

About the Music:
“I Shall Not Want” from the album Fortunate Fall

Lyrics:
From the love of my own comfort
From the fear of having nothing
From a life of worldly passions
Deliver me O God

From the need to be understood
From the need to be accepted
From the fear of being lonely
Deliver me O God
Deliver me O God

And I shall not want, no I shall not want
When I taste Your goodness I shall not want
When I taste Your goodness I shall not want

From the fear of serving others
From the fear of death or trial
From the fear of humility
Deliver me O God
Deliver me O God

No, I shall not want, no I shall not want
When I taste Your goodness I shall not want
And I shall not want, I shall not want
When I taste Your goodness I shall not want
When I taste Your goodness I shall not want
I shall not want
I shall not want

About the Composers:
Over the past seven years, Bryan Brown has served three churches as worship leader. He’s also come into his own as a songwriter and has recorded two albums. His 2004 CD debut, Sing, has an affecting rawness and immediacy, because he recorded it with his brother Christopher in their parents’ basement. Stephen Gause produced Bryan’s new album, Shine, an epic ebb and flow CD laced with regally ringing guitars and anthemic choruses. Bryan has a clear vision for his songwriting. “I want to write and sing these songs in a way that others can sing along, Through that, I want people's emotions to be raised by the melody and by the truth they are singing. My job at that point is to direct those feelings and affections to where they belong. Not to me, or a band, or a stage, but to God.”

About the Performer/Composer:
Audrey Assad (b.1983), the daughter of a Syrian refugee, is an author, speaker, producer, and a critically lauded songwriter and musician. She creates music she calls “soundtracks of prayer” on the label Fortunate Fall Records, which she co-owns with her husband. She is also one half of the pop band LEVV, whose debut EP peaked at #17 on the iTunes Alternative chart. In 2014, Assad released an EP, Death, Be Not Proud, which reflected on her recent encounters with loss and suffering--including her husband’s journey through cancer and chemotherapy. Her latest recording, Inheritance was released in February 2016.

About the Poet:
Jane Hirshfield (b. 1953) is an American poet, essayist, and translator. She received her bachelor's degree from Princeton University in the school's first graduating class to include women. Hirshfield's eight books of poetry have received numerous awards. Her fifth book, Given Sugar, Given Salt, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She has edited four books collecting the work of poets from the past, and is noted as being "part of a wave of important scholarship then seeking to recover the forgotten history of women writers." Her honors include: a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1985, the Academy of American Poets’ 2004 Fellowship for Distinguished Achievement, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 2005, and the Donald Hall-Jane Kenyon Award in American Poetry in 2012. Never a full-time academic, Hirshfield has taught at the University of California at Berkeley, University of San Francisco, and as the Elliston Visiting Poet at the University of Cincinnati.

About the Devotional Writer:
Dr. Natasha Duquette is Professor of English at Tyndale University College & Seminary. She has edited Sublimer Aspects: Interfaces between Literature, Aesthetics, and Theology (Cambridge Scholars, 2007) and co-edited, with Elisabeth Lenckos, Jane Austen and the Arts: Elegance, Propriety, Harmony (Lehigh University Press, 2013). Her monograph Veiled Intent: Dissenting Women’s Aesthetic Approach to Biblical Interpretation (Pickwick, 2016) focuses on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century poetry. She is married to Frederick Duquette and lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.