A painting arrives

In her painting ‘The Baptism’, Sabine Gieshoff depicts the moment when Jesus is baptised by John the Baptist. The work has a contemporary design, but the artist was also inspired by art from earlier painting eras. For example, the relationship between the figures is reminiscent of a painting in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany: Cerano, Baptism of Christ, 1601, as well as the figurative language of Georg Baselitz's ‘The Heroes’ (1965/66).

The painting was originally intended to be donated to a parish on the Azores Island of Faial in Portugal for the construction of a new church. However, it never arrived there; various circumstances left no room for the painting. But the work was soon to find a new home. 

Goetz, a close friend of the artist who lived in Pedro Miguel on Faial, fell deeply in love with the painting and finally took it over from the artist. He treasured the painting above all else and Gieshoff was delighted that the work had found a decent home.

However, an extremely sad event soon deprived the work of its new owner. Goetz's life ended in tragic circumstances, leaving the painting homeless again.

It is a truly fortunate, almost coincidental circumstance that the painting was saved from an uncertain future. A couple from the district of Feteira on Faial, who were friends of Goetz and the painter, took over the work and donated it to the church community in Feteira, where it now delights the churchgoers over the baptismal font of the Igreja do Espírito Santo.