Christ on the Cross by Carl Bloch: Copper, Sunset, and the Frederiksborg Commission (1870)
Carl Heinrich Bloch painted Christ on the Cross in 1870 on copper, not canvas, for the King’s Oratory at Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerød. It belongs to the cycle of twenty-three scenes from the life of Christ that he made between 1865 and 1879 for the chapel rebuilt after the fire of December 1859. The picture is now in the Museum of National History at the same castle. A later Bloch, Christ with Mocking Soldier (1880) , looks at the hours before the Cross. This one looks at the hour itself. Quick facts Artist: Carl Heinrich Bloch (1834–1890), Copenhagen Date: 1870 Medium: Oil on copper Collection: Museum of National History, Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerød, Denmark Notable fact: One of twenty-three Life of Christ scenes commissioned after the 1859 fire; paid for by the brewer J. C. Jacobsen Carl Heinrich Bloch, Christ on the Cross, 1870. Oil on copper. Museum of National History, Frederiksborg Castle, Hillerød. Image via the Sapiens Verbum print shop. A chapel that had to be...