James Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836-1902), "The Animals Enter the Ark," c. 1896-1902, gouache on board, 9 x 6 13/16 in, The Jewish Museum, New York. Image provided by the Jewish Museum, New York. Gift of the heirs of Jacob Schiff. Featured "Come, Follow Me" artwork for January 31 - February 6.
Last year, the Museum of Art began a social media campaign to share weekly artworks to accompany the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Come, Follow Me program. These posts, shared every Sunday on Instagram and Facebook with artworks from our collections and current exhibitions, give followers a chance to visualize and reflect on the scriptural passages and lessons they have been studying at home and discussing in Sunday School classes. Now, we are delighted to announce that our Come Follow Me series will also be added to our website at the beginning of each month with artworks, background information, and discussion questions for each Come Follow Me chapter in the month to come. We hope that these resources will useful to all who seek to enhance their scripture study, including Sunday School teachers looking for visual aids for their classes, parents hoping to enhance their family scripture study, visual learners who find pictures helpful to relate to scripture stories and gospel topics, and anyone who simply wants more inspiring art in their lives.
As you can see from our selections for February, these artworks range from representational to abstract, they vary in artistic medium, and they include both depictions of specific scriptural stories and general protrayals of concepts and themes found in Come Follow Me lessons. Each week's artwork is accompanied by background information on the artwork or the lesson, as well as one or more questions to help you ponder, reflect, and forge spiritual connections.
As this year's curriculum follows the Old Testament, and as we'll have the unique opportunity to exhibit James Tissot's series of Old Testament illustrations later this year, we're thrilled to share that many of those iconic paintings will be featured in this year's series, starting with his depiction of the animals entering Noah's ark for this Sunday. A full exhibition of these works will be on display at the MOA from May 6 to December 31 of this year.
If you'd like to follow along, you can sign up for email notifications from us whenever we share the next month's installment of Come Follow Me artworks, or you can check our Come, Follow Me page whenever you like (it also includes a brief archive of each of these posts since 2021). Or, if you prefer, you can follow us on Instagram or Facebook, where we share a new post each Sunday to go with that week's chapter. However you choose to get involved, we hope you find our
Come Follow Me series inspiring and helpful as you engage in your study of the scriptures.