The Widow's Offering

Josef Danhauser was an Austrian painter and graphic artist of the Biedermeier period.

With this allegorical genre picture, religious in content, Danhauser makes yet another appeal to the moral sense of the viewer. A corpulent, extravagantly garbed couple are depicted demonstrating their hypocritical beneficence at the "correct" address. The gentleman ostentatiously drops coins into the collection tin of an abjectly bowing sexton at the church door. Pushed into the background by the lady's opulent gown, a widow encourages her son to give a coin to a blind beggar. The sincere compassion of the widow, herself stricken by hardship, is emphasised by the crucifix on the wall behind.