Crucified Christ 1907

Wilhelm Süs made this study for a stained glass window, Crucified Christ, at the turn of the century with a light touch, so the colours and figures are not overwhelming. You get a sense that he worked slowly, carefully crafting each panel with gentle pastel hues, like a meditative act. The texture of the surface is fascinating—it’s smooth, but you can see the slight variations in tone that suggest a history of layering, like Süs was building up this imagined window pane one stroke at a time. Look at the sky, how each section is outlined with these delicate strokes, as if to mimic stained glass, giving the whole scene a slightly fractured, dreamlike quality. This reminds me of some of the early modernist stained glass of artists like Rouault, who similarly embraced the process of artmaking as a journey, a way to explore the boundaries between representation and abstraction. It invites us to see art as a continuous conversation.