The Miraculous Draught of Fishes
Gustave Doré, 1866 · John 21:10
The passage
Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.
John 21:10
About this plate
A boat low in the water at the right, and coming over its side a net so full it has changed shape, bulging, silver, spilling fish into the bilge. Four or five men are hauling on it, braced, one nearly over the gunwale. At the left, standing apart on the shore, is Christ, watching, one hand raised.
The distance between him and the work is the composition. He does not touch the net. He is not even in the boat. Doré puts him at the edge of the frame and gives the entire centre to men doing something physically difficult.
The verse is almost comic in its ordinariness. Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Not a word about the miracle they have just witnessed. Breakfast is on the fire and he wants them to fetch some of the catch.
John counts them a few lines later: a hundred and fifty and three. Somebody sat on that beach and counted the fish. Doré's plate is full of the same instinct, which is to attend to the weight and the mess of the thing rather than to the wonder.
Swipe left or right for the next plate