The Levite Before the Corpse of His Wife

The Levite Before the Corpse of His Wife of 1896, in the Jewish Museum, illustrates one of the most harrowing episodes in the Book of Judges: the gang rape and murder of a Levite's concubine by men of the tribe of Benjamin in Gibeah, and the horrified discovery of her body by her husband in the morning. The episode was the catalyst for a civil war within Israel. Tissot undertook his Old Testament illustration project with the full knowledge that it encompassed terrible violence alongside its great narratives of faith and heroism, and his willingness to illustrate such episodes was part of his commitment to the complete text. Working in gouache on cardboard with the same meticulous Near Eastern detail he brought to every scene, Tissot refuses to sentimentalise or soften an episode that the Biblical text presents with stark, unflinching horror.

Gouache on cardboard, with Tissot's characteristic fine detail and warm, documentary palette. The composition requires careful handling of the prostrate figure and the Levite's response — grief, horror, and what the text describes as a terrible determination — within a confined, intimate space. The morning light that reveals the scene is an important compositional element.