The Wilderness | Landscape

Available in Portrait and Landscape Orientations
You are viewing the Landscape version. View Portrait version →

About The Wilderness

A note from Mark Mabry

"And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil." (Luke 4:1-2)

This is the Jesus paintings almost never show. Rough, unpolished, dirty, tired. Standing in the Judean Wilderness above the Dead Sea, dust on the robe and hunger somewhere behind the eyes. Forty days into a fast that nobody else was watching.

Mark collaborated on The Wilderness with his friend, a South African painter named Pieter Van Tonder. Pieter brought the brush. Mark brought the brief. The brief was simple. Paint Him the way He actually would have looked.

WORSHIP THE LORD THY GOD.

That is the line Jesus answered the third temptation with (Luke 4:8). The wilderness was not a metaphor. It was a place. The Judean Wilderness is low country and hard country, the kind of country that takes a man down to the studs and asks him what he is actually made of.

This is a painting for the man who has fought hunger or ambition and chose the harder yes. It is the Father's Day anchor of the collection. It is the masculine register that the gallery wall did not give us.

For the later prayer in the garden, the next time He stood alone with His own will, see Progression. For the collection built around this register, see Christian Gifts for Men.

He stayed in the wilderness and walked out the same Man who walked in.

Common questions

What scene does The Wilderness depict?

Luke 4:1-2. Christ in the Judean Wilderness above the Dead Sea during the forty-day fast and temptation. The robe is dust-toned, the posture is tired, the light is harsh. This is the Jesus paintings almost never show.

Is The Wilderness a painting or a photograph?

It is a painting. Most Reflections of Christ pieces are photographs. The Wilderness is the exception, a collaboration with South African painter Pieter Van Tonder. Mark brought the brief. Pieter brought the brush. The brief was simple. Paint Him the way He actually would have looked.

Who painted The Wilderness?

South African painter Pieter Van Tonder, on a brief from Mark Mabry. Mark directed the scene, the location, and the masculine register. Pieter rendered the brushwork.

Where does The Wilderness look best in a home?

In rooms that carry weight. A study, a library, a home office, a basement bar, the wall behind a leather chair. It is the Father's Day anchor of the collection and the masculine register the gallery wall did not give us.

Who is The Wilderness for?

For the man who has fought hunger or ambition and chose the harder yes. For the home that wants Christ in His most stripped-down moment. For the family that wants their husbands and sons to see Christ in the same kind of country.