Rouault, who has been described as the most notable religious painter of the twentieth century, produced many works on Christian themes throughout his life. He began painting his distinctive images of Christ after he had left the École des Beaux-Arts and was developing a new style. While depicting the urban scenes around him, circus performers, and ordinary people, with rough brushwork, he also produced icons seeking the reality of Christ. His use of the court theme began in about 1907, when, through a friend who was a deputy public prosecutor, he was able to visit the law courts of the department of the Seine (Paris and its suburbs). His attendance at the courts inspired many works on that theme between 1907 and 1914 and rare but repeated examples thereafter. From the start, what interested Rouault was not depicting an accurate record of the court setting or individual cases but the absurdity of a trial in which one person judges another. From the 1930s, Christ began appearing in his courtroom scenes, which gained a new depth of meaning and emotion. In this work, Christ is depicted in the center, looking straight at the viewer. The people around him, painted in red, may be judges and defendants Rouault had seen. Or perhaps in the story of Jesus Christ’s trial before the high priest, they are the high priest and the soldiers who mocked Christ in court or an expression of the eternal human tendency to judge God.