Here is a curious, widely forgotten episode in the history of French painting. In 1882 James Tissot returned to Paris following an 11-year sojourn as a successful painter of London society. Tissot (1836-1902) intended to produce a series of paintings of fashionable Parisian women, but one day, during a church service, he had a vision of Jesus tending to people in a ruined building. It was his Road to Damascus.
Four years later, reconfirmed in his Roman Catholic faith, he took off on a research trip to the Holy Land, beginning a 10-year campaign to illustrate the New Testament.