Although this painting describes the activities of the passage just before the lectionary reading for today from Genesis, it tenderly depicts the love that Jacob felt for Rachel. The artist, Joseph Fuhrich, was a member of the so-called Nazarene school of Christian artists, mostly German, who lived and practiced in Rome. "[He] was as Catholic in his art as in his life. He was fond of avowing his principles on art with great emphasis; he declares that religion, art, and nature are harmoniously combined...that he does not admit that ecclesiastical art is its own end, but that its end is to be serviceable in God's house, not as mere decoration, but as a means of instruction, in order to manifest to the heart as far as possible by means of the senses the life of faith." (Shahan, 311)