Many of us grew up with this beloved painting of Jesus as the most memorable one of our childhoods. And it remains that way today for us as adults. But most people have never even heard of the artist behind it, nor his story.
Jesus Daily has a short video explaining the history of artist Warner Sallman and how he came to paint the famous “Head of Jesus” and other paintings of Christ. He was requested to draw an image of Christ for a magazine, and overnight a vision came to him of how to draw it.
As a Swede living in Chicago, his version of Jesus looks fairly Caucasian, and became known as the “American Jesus.” It has been copied over five billion times.
It is now on display at the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. Watch the video below to hear the full story, including how a church almost dumped the famous original in an alley because they didn’t want it.
