Personal Stories

by Ron Rice, Feb. 23, 2010

Our family, from Philadelphia, have always enjoyed the paintings of Warner Sallman. So, when this experience happened to me in 2000 I was thrilled: While attending a men’s Bible study in Sarasota, Florida, a man approached me after the study ended. He handed the famous Head of Christ pocket-sized photo to me and said, “My father painted this.” I was speechless, as I had met the son of Warner, Jim Sallman. This was a special moment in time for me.

by Carol Kable, Feb. 8, 2010

The Lutheran church I grew up has the painting Christ at Heart’s Door in a prominent place in the foyer of their fellowship hall. It’s been there for about 50 years. I remember when I was a child the minister explaining the story and pointing out that there was no doorknob, since Jesus would not come in to your heart uninvited. As an artist and Christian today I will always remember this painting. I came to have a personal relationship with the Lord in college, and I can attribute it to the early experiences, like this painting, that planted seeds in my life.

by Karen Jensen Markowsky, Jan. 6, 2010

I have wonderful memories of the very large original painting Head of Christ, as it was prominently hung in the sanctuary (above where the choir was seated) of the church that my family attended when I was growing up in the 1950’s and ’60s (Edgewater Covenant, at the corner of Bryn Mawr & Glenwood Avenues in Chicago, in what was at that time a Swedish neighborhood). It was so nice to be able to gaze up at that beautiful painting during the Sunday services!

Warner Sallman was a member of our congregation, and as I recall, every Easter he would make a beautiful chalk drawing in front of the congregation, surrounded by potted Easter lilies, while we listened to a lovely presentation of spiritual music.

One year when I was little, Mr. Sallman personally presented each of us children in the Sunday School of our church with a beautifully framed copy of one of his paintings. I was very honored to shake his hand when he gave me the painting, which I still have and treasure to this day.

by Lori Hendricks, Nov. 29, 2009

As long as I can remember (I am now 43), the Head of Christ has always been above of the bed of my grandmother (98 years old). Her mother bought it for a dollar in a department store. When I Iook at the picture, it seems so real and lifelike. For some reason, it has always given me comfort when I look at it. My grandmother is in her last days on this earth, and I will choose to think of her with that picture over her head as I remember her with comfort.

by Matthew Storz, Nov. 18, 2009

I received one of Warner Sallman’s paintings after my grandmother, Edith Viste (Slater), 93, passed away in April of 2009.

The 1942 painting of Christ at Heart’s Door now hangs in my home. I did not know anything about the painting prior to looking online and it had been hanging on my wall for seven months before I saw the outline of the heart.

The painting reminded me of these posters we had as kids growing up in the late 1980s to early 90s that you would stare at for several minutes before you would see a hidden image, made famous in the movie Mallrats.

After reading more online about the painting, it intrigues me even more about the darkness behind the grill in the door and the the thistles in which Christ is surrounded; the outline of the heart really is genius painting.

Sallman really thought through how to paint this without making everything so obvious. There is so much going on in the painting, much like one’s personal relationship with Jesus Christ everyday.