On the Way to Emmaus

This began as a fresco, painted straight into wet plaster and only later lifted onto canvas, and it can be dated almost to the day. Böcklin started it on the 4th of September, 1868. He made it for the garden pavilion of a Basel councillor, Karl Sarasin-Sauvain, who wanted his garden hall filled with scenes from the Old and New Testament. The commission was probably steered his way by his friend Jacob Burckhardt, the Basel historian of the Renaissance. The subject is the moment in the Gospels when two travellers walk the road to Emmaus beside a stranger they have not yet recognised as the risen Christ. It was the right-hand image on the wall, made for a private garden a short walk from the Rhine.