Léon Bonnat: Job (1880)

(Musée Bonnat-Helleu, Bayonne, France)

a very powerful religious painting by the French artist Léon Bonnat. On the painting we can see Job, the central character of the Book of Job in the Old Testament. Having lost his health, his children, his property, Job is portrayed as an fragile old man, striped of his clothes, at his deepest point of despiration. He struggles to understand the situation and is looking for answers. He is looks up to God as to ask 'why, Why do the righteous suffer?'. In the end job is rewarded by God for his obedience. Painting from 1880