The Two Men Possessed with Devils (Les deux démoniaques)
James Tissot
European Art
As earlier temptation episodes foretold, the devil left Jesus “for a season” but reappeared time and again to test him in the form of possessed outcasts. Here, in a barren landscape pocked with caves and tombs—a terrain familiar from Tissot’s sketches of the Valley of Hinnom—Jesus encounters two men afflicted with demons, while a herd of swine wanders on the horizon. Tissot notes that the Gentiles, sometimes in the employ of Jews, tended swine in these lands, despite Jewish tradition, which regarded the animals as unclean.
According to Matthew, so fearsome were these possessed men that few dared to roam in these lands. Nude, emaciated, and long-haired, the men jump and flail before Jesus and the disciples. Casting the devils out, Jesus urges them to join the swine, which run over a cliff and plummet to their deaths in the sea below.
According to Matthew, so fearsome were these possessed men that few dared to roam in these lands. Nude, emaciated, and long-haired, the men jump and flail before Jesus and the disciples. Casting the devils out, Jesus urges them to join the swine, which run over a cliff and plummet to their deaths in the sea below.
MEDIUM
Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper
DATES
1886–1894
DIMENSIONS
Image: 6 5/8 x 9 7/8 in. (16.8 x 25.1 cm)
Sheet: 6 5/8 x 9 7/8 in. (16.8 x 25.1 cm)
Frame: 15 x 20 x 1 1/2 in. (38.1 x 50.8 x 3.8 cm) (show scale)
SIGNATURE
Signed bottom right: "J.J. Tissot"
COLLECTIONS
European Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
00.159.105
CREDIT LINE
Purchased by public subscription
PROVENANCE
1900, purchased from the artist by the Brooklyn Museum.
Provenance FAQ
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
James Tissot (Nantes, France, 1836–1902, Chenecey–Buillon, France). The Two Men Possessed with Devils (Les deux démoniaques), 1886–1894. Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, Image: 6 5/8 x 9 7/8 in. (16.8 x 25.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased by public subscription, 00.159.105 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 00.159.105_PS1.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 00.159.105_PS1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2006
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