I’ve not known of Anker’s paintings for long, but here I show one of them, and another of the same genre, with wonderful insight into the reality of human life and relationship.
Albert Anker (1831 – 1910) was considered the ‘national painter’ of Switzerland because he produced so many insightful depictions of everyday social situations. I guess we could say people recognised themselves in his work.
Here is one painting I really love: It’s called ‘Reading Devotions to Grandfather’ 1893.
One can imagine a household where several generations live together, and the sense of dedication on the face of the young reader is amazing. Grandfather has lived a lifetime of daily devotion, in reading the Bible and prayer. But now, perhaps because of his eyesight, he has his grandson to read for him. In this, another sense of devotion is depicted also: the old man’s hope to encourage a similar habit in the life of the young man, and the lad’s responsive devotion to his grandfather.
The old man listens and reflects with patience, while the young lad reads with focus and a desire to please. This way of life, and ‘daily devotions’, may now seem long gone, but the beauty of the scene and the warmth of relationship, is so evident. I love it.
I recently saw a similar painting, this time depicting a young lad with older people, in church. It’s not by Anker, but belongs to the same genre and period. Unfortunately I cannot access the picture without a caption that someone has added (on Facebook), but the caption is itself both insightful and amusing.
I have now been able to find its provenance: It is by the Russian painter Alexei Danilovich Kivshenko, (1851 – 1895), and was titled (somewhat prosaically) ‘In a church’, painted in 1881. I’ve placed an un-captioned copy at the end of this post).
The old man is reading his Bible or hymn book. The other members of the family are listening, perhaps. The faces of those behind variously indicate interest and perhaps endurance. I am sure those pews were hard.
As one who has for many years been invited to preach, I have always found it beneficial to be a listener, to sit in the pews and know what it is like to negotiate that fine line. I prefer not to preach long sermons, at least as that measure is seen in some churches. (When I was very young an elderly man told me he would not consider anything under 45 minutes a sermon. He called my offering a ‘talk’. I assured him I would never preach a sermon, then. A hostage situation indeed!)
My sense is that just as preachers learn to preach, so too congregations may learn to listen. It is an unusual kind of situation and in many ways today preachers must do things differently to hold people’s attention. But I have found, as a visiting preacher, that you can sense when a community has learned to listen—an indication of the quality of work of those who present to them more regularly.
I do hope that this form of communication will survive amidst the other forms of communication we have today—which include the option to add captions to beautiful old paintings! And may it be that those who do try to preach succeed in avoiding hostage situations!
