PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from Webb's Fine New Zealand Paintings, Jewellery & Decorative Arts, 29/06/2004

ILLUSTRATED
p. 78 Michael Smither Painter, Trish Gribben, Ron Sang Publications 2004

An important contrast within Michael Smither's religious genre is that of faith and doubt. Doubting Thomas is like a New Zealand Grünewald; Smither has always been intrigued by Grünewalds Isenheim Altarpiece. The violent punctures left by the crown of thorns pressed onto Christ's head and the greys, blues and greens that shadow Christ's body in Doubting Thomas recall the extreme proto-expressionism of the German artist's work. Grünewald's multi-panelled Isenheim Altarpiece was conceived as a meditative consolation.

Smither says he has deliberately turned Thomas into a type of spiritual hero in this painting, calling the confrontation and acknowledgment of doubt a sign of ethical strength. Smither named one of his sons after the biblical doubter.

Thomas the Apostle, also called Didymus, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Thomas is commonly known as Doubting Thomas because he doubted Jesus' resurrection when first told of it; later, he confessed his faith, My Lord and my God, on seeing Jesus' crucifixion wounds. These wounds are rather like the cuts and gashes one finds on a scarred landscape, said Smither.

In the early 1980s Smither revisited this scene with a larger version, with the same poses, for St. Joseph's Church in New Plymouth. This time the Christ Thomas encounter was set amid a throng of apostles, dogs and ordinary citizens. The painting was once borrowed as an inspirational piece for a conference of the Catholic Church in Australia.

The courage to doubt in the face of the great juggernaut of Christianity was illustrated by St Thomas who had the courage to investigate his doubt about the resurrection. As with many parables in the Catholic liturgy, I saw this as a courageous act rather than a cringing doubt Michael Smither Michael Smither Painter, Trish Gribben, Ron Sang Publications 2004