The Disciples Peter and John Running to the Sepulchre on the Morning of the Resurrection

John's Gospel gives this moment two short verses. On Easter morning, told that the tomb was empty, Peter and the other disciple ran there together, and the other one ran faster. Burnand painted exactly that and left out everything else. There is no tomb, no angel, no risen Christ, no halo. Just two men out of breath against a yellow dawn, seen so close that they fill most of the canvas. The young, beardless John has his hands locked together, the grey-bearded Peter presses a hand to his chest, and the wind pulls at their hair. John is half a step ahead, as the text says. At the 1898 Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, some critics found this too down-to-earth for a sacred subject. Burnand replied that he was an evangelist through art.