The Importance of Exhibition History: James Elder Christie, “Suffer Little Children to Come unto Me” Part A

 

 

 

As noted in Part 1 of The Importance of Provenance and Exhibition Histories, James Elder

Christie’s oil painting, Suffer Little Children to Come unto Me, has no Exhibition History in

Lyon and Turnbull’s A Taste for Art catalogue for the sale which took place in 2024.

 

Some exhibition histories might never be complete, for one reason or another. However, it is

possible to fill in a lot of gaps for this painting, thanks to the availability of newspapers on

online resources, such as The British Newspaper Archive, and Google News Archive Search.

 

An article on page five of the Paisley & Renfrewshire Gazette, AND PAISLEY HERALD (Paisley &

Renfrewshire Gazette, in The British Newspaper Archive), on Saturday the 24th of October, 1896,

reads:

 

“MR. J. E. CHRISTIE’S LATEST PICTURE.

An important picture, bearing the title ‘Suffer Little Children to come unto Me,’ which has chiefly occupied

the brush, for the past twelve months, of Mr. J. E. Christie, the well-known painter, was lately placed on view in

the galleries of Messrs. Van Baerle Bros., Glasgow. In dealing with his subject Mr. Christie has endeavoured

(says a critic) to strike medium between the style of the modern realists, who depict Christ now in the garb of

a Bavarian peasant, and now as a Parisian ouveier [sic], and that of the followers of Overbeck and the German

idealists of half-a-century ago, from whose religious pictures all sense of present-day life and present-day effects

were vigorously excluded. On a green meadow starred with wild flowers, Mr. Christie has collected a congregation

of children of all ages, from the baby of a few months to the romping boy or girl of twelve or fourteen years. Some

of the younger sort are asleep and some are awake, the elder are gathered into groups, singing, dancing, or otherwise

amusing themselves. In the centre of the picture, and occupying what may be termed the middle distance, is the

figure of the Saviour. He is clad in robes of white; he is a shadow—a presence—rather than an actual person. The

features are grave and beautiful, the attitude is one of waiting, and the hands are slightly held forward as if giving

welcome or greeting to the children by whom the Saviour is surrounded. Flitting overhead are innumerable child

faces, all of whom are bent with a loving look on the Christ, and all of whom bear like Him the characteristics of

angel rather than mortal nature. In conceiving his work, Mr. Christie set out with the design to illustrate, by means

of line and colour, the spiritual, the unseen influence of Christianity. Consequently, while his creatures were children

of flesh and blood, creatures full of life, and of the enjoyment which is natural to childhood, the Saviour, as has been

said, is a shadow, a form, a something which is not of this world. Mr. Christie’s technique, in ‘Suffer Little Children,’

is firm and expressive. While the colour is strong, vivid, and lucious, the drawing is careful, and the grouping and

general arrangement expressive and masterly. A reproduction of ‘Suffer Little Children’ has been prepared, and will

be published by Messrs. Van Baerle.”

 

 

 

 

The British Newspaper Archive.

 

 

 

 

George Fairfull-Smith, June 2025.