Last Supper

Fritz von Uhde's 'Last Supper' (1886) is one of his most ambitious religious subjects — his distinctive approach of depicting Biblical scenes in contemporary German working-class settings giving traditional Christian iconography radical new social content. His Last Supper placed Christ and the disciples among contemporary Munich workers and peasants, the sacred meal rendered with the same honest naturalism he brought to his secular genre subjects. The theological implications of bringing the Eucharistic meal into the contemporary working-class world were not lost on conservative critics, who objected to what they saw as the desacralization of Christian narrative.

Von Uhde renders the Last Supper with the Impressionist-influenced light handling that characterized his best religious subjects — the natural light from the scene's contemporary setting falling across the disciples and Christ with the same atmospheric quality he brought to his secular genre subjects. His treatment of the individual figures within the group avoids the hierarchical formality of traditional Last Supper iconography, placing Christ among equals rather than above. The contemporary costume and setting required adaptation of the traditional compositional formula.