Scripture · Luke 22:45
Luke 15:5-6
The Good Shepherd (The Lost Sheep)
And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, comes home, and calls together his friends and neighbors to tell them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep!’
A shepherd carries a sheep across his shoulders amid rugged hills and sparse vegetation. Tanner gives the rescued animal a difficult landscape to be carried through.
About the artwork
The shepherd comes toward us carrying the sheep, with much of the animal’s weight resting across his shoulders. The narrow path and the rocky slopes give the familiar Good Shepherd image a demanding setting. A pale moon lights the distance, but there is still ground to cross before the rescue becomes a homecoming.
Tanner had once kept a sheep as a student model and later recalled how stubborn and difficult to manage a single animal could be. That experience does not explain every choice in this painting, but it keeps the subject from becoming merely a gentle emblem. Carrying this animal is bodily work. Luke’s detail of the sheep on the shepherd’s shoulders gives Tanner a way to show care as effort as well as tenderness.
Featured in: Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Bible Paintings: Humiliated at Home, Honoured in Paris
What does Luke 15:5-6 mean?
Luke introduces the lost-sheep parable as an answer to complaints that Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them. The shepherd searches for the missing animal until he finds it, then carries it home and calls others to share his joy. The emphasis moves from loss and searching to recovery and celebration.
The sheep across the shoulders belongs specifically to Luke’s telling. Tanner’s rough terrain emphasizes the bodily work behind that familiar image of care. The quoted verses concern the joy of finding and returning; the surrounding landscape is the artist’s way of giving the journey substance.
Luke 15:5–6 identifies the gesture at the center of the painting: the found sheep is carried home in a return marked by joy.
Sources
Newark Museum of Art; oil on canvas, 81.3 × 61 cm.
Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Bible Paintings: Humiliated at Home, Honoured in Paris. Artwork reading adapted from this guide.
Luke 15 — Berean Standard Bible. Context for Luke 15:5-6.
Also from Luke:The Angel Appearing to ZachariasAnnunciation
Continue looking:Invitation to the FeastThe Lost SheepThe Exaltation of the Cross