DescriptionDuring his long career in Spain, El Greco produced numerous paintings of Christ carrying the cross. The Lehman canvas, arguably his earliest version of the subject, is not a narrative scene: no other figures are represented and the setting is not recognizable. Instead, it is a devotional image of haunting immediacy and resonant with pathos. Christ's willing sacrifice for mankind is expressed through his gentle embrace of the cross and his heavenward gaze.

Signatures, Inscriptions, and MarkingsInscriptions: Signed on the cross, above Christ's left hand, in Greek: doménikos theotokópoulos epoíei (Domenikos Theotokopoulos made this)

ProvenanceJavier de Quinto, conde de Quinto (d. 1860), Madrid and Paris; condesa de Quinto, Paris, (sale catalogue, 1862 [no auction held], lot 68 [?]; Sir William Stirling Maxwell (1818–1878), Pollok, Keir, and Cadder, Scotland; General Archibald Stirling; Lieutenant Colonel William Stirling; acquired by Robert Lehman, New York in 1953