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After 1880, Kaulbach took a greater interest in religious themes. However, in interpreting these subjects, he stayed true to his brilliant reputation as a portraitist and composed the majority of these works along the lines of a portrait.
The pastel drawing shown here exemplifies this reinterpretation; the blond, curly-headed child with his bright but pensive eyes appears in his freshness to be a contemporary of the beholder. By contrast, Mary with her classical profile and build, appears to have stepped out of the Renaissance. Her sombre glance and sadly premonitory embrace of the child symbolize a fate that has already been foretold.
Although Kaulbach himself did not write a title upon the work, Fritz von Ostini published it as early as 1911, during the artist’s lifetime, under the title Maria in the first catalogue of Kaulbach’s works. Klaus Zimmermanns also listed it in his monograph of 1980 under Religious Subjects.