Home
/
art
/
the violet oakley experience
/
The Church
/
"Christ the Carpenter" World War II Portable Altarpiece
/
Study for Christ Building the Ship, "Christ the Carpenter" World War II portable altarpiece, for Philadelphia Naval Base Chapel
Study for Christ Building the Ship, "Christ the Carpenter" World War II portable altarpiece, for Philadelphia Naval Base Chapel

Study for Christ Building the Ship, "Christ the Carpenter" World War II portable altarpiece, for Philadelphia Naval Base Chapel

"Christ the Carpenter" World War II Portable Altarpiece
,
Philadelphia Naval Base Chapel

Object Details

Title:
Study for Christ Building the Ship, "Christ the Carpenter" World War II portable altarpiece, for Philadelphia Naval Base Chapel
Date:
c. 1944
Artist:
Medium:
Pen and ink, graphite and red pencil on cardboard
Dimensions
11 x 7 1/2 in.
Classification
No items found.
Credit Line:
Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 2015
Description

[superimposed over the image in red pencil]: [a graph with numbers 1-17 on the x-axis and letters a-I on the y-axis]; [below the center panel in ink]: Christ Building The Ship; [bottom center in ink]: the passage from Psalm 127; [lower right in red ink]: stamped signature; [verso at bottom in graphite]: Christ the carpenter 20 / buildeth a fishing boat 23 / Henceforth I will make you / fishers of men / except the Lord...; [verso at top]: Violet Oakley / Citizens Committee for the Army & Navy Inc / 36 East 36 St-NYCOne of Oakley's most impressive altarpieces was the monumental Christ the Carpenter for the Philadelphia Naval Yard Chapel, which portrays Jesus as a strong young man in a tunic building the hull of a ship. Beneath the workbench, his pet dog watches as he bears lumber onto his shoulder in a pose that foreshadows the carrying of the cross.

We are always open to learning more about our collections and updating the website. We invite you to share your ideas, knowledge, and stories as they relate to the art in our collection. Contact us here.

Please note that this particular work might not be on view when you visit.
Don’t worry—we have plenty of exhibitions for you to explore.

The Violet Oakley Experience is funded by a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
For her expertise and scholarship on The Violet Oakley Experience, Woodmere thanks Patricia Likos Ricci. The foremost authority on Oakley, she is the Director of the Department of Fine Arts, Associate Professor of the History of Art, and a member of the Women and Gender Studies faculty at Elizabethtown College.
Woodmere’s website infrastructure and the digitization of the Museum’s collection are made possible by the generous support of Lisa Kabnick and John McFadden.