Scripture · Matthew 2:13-15
Matthew 2:9
The Three Wise Men
After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stood over the place where the Child was.
Hooded riders and camels form a dark procession through blue-green night. A small bright rectangle in the distance offers one point of contrast.
About the artwork
Tanner pares the journey down to riders, animals, darkness, and a distant light. Crowns, gifts, and even an explicitly pictured star are absent. The result concentrates on people still traveling toward an encounter, before the familiar scene of adoration begins.
In the 1991 exhibition catalogue, Darrel Sewell compares this painting with James Tissot’s richly detailed Journey of the Magi. Tanner’s simplified forms leave much less costume and spectacle to examine. The riders belong to the same blue-green world as the hills, and the little lit rectangle ahead becomes unusually noticeable. The story has to be recognized through movement and expectation rather than royal display.
Featured in: Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Bible Paintings: Humiliated at Home, Honoured in Paris
What does Matthew 2:9 mean?
Matthew’s Magi first arrive in Jerusalem asking for the newborn king. Herod consults the chief priests and scribes, who identify Bethlehem through the prophet Micah. In verse 9, after that encounter with the king, the travelers resume their journey and the star goes before them.
Matthew does not number the Magi or call them kings; those familiar details belong to the later pictorial tradition. Tanner’s riders can be read at the point of renewed movement toward Bethlehem, while his omission of a visible star leaves the viewer dependent on the subject’s title and biblical context to understand their destination.
Matthew 2:9 locates the Magi between their questioning in Jerusalem and their discovery of the child: they are still on the way.
Sources
private collection; oil on canvas, 63.5 × 88.9 cm.
Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Bible Paintings: Humiliated at Home, Honoured in Paris. Artwork reading adapted from this guide.
Matthew 2 — Berean Standard Bible. Context for Matthew 2:9.
Also from Matthew:Marriage of the VirginThe Dream of Saint Joseph
Continue looking:The Three Kings See the StarFirst Steps, after Millet