The Youth of Our Lord

A chance arrangement of wood forming the shape of a cross on the unlit fire catches the attention of the young Jesus; Mary gazes at him with concern while Joseph works on obliviously. Herbert was a Roman Catholic convert and concentrated on Biblical subjects. His clear outlines and colours were influenced by the Nazarenes, a group of semi-monastic German artists, and was a forerunner to the Pre-Raphaelites. This work was a major inspiration to one of Millais' most controversial early paintings, 'Christ in the House of His Parents' (1849). There are two other versions of this composition, in which the background was based on ‘a very careful drawing made at Nazareth’.