Delacroix painted at least six versions of this New Testament lesson in faith: when awakened by his terrified disciples, Christ scolded them for their lack of trust in Providence. In the earlier works, the seascape is more prominent; in the later ones, as here, Christ's bark occupies a more significant place. After Vincent van Gogh saw this version in Paris in 1886, he wrote, Christ's boat-I'm talking about the blue and green sketch with touches of purple and red and a little lemon yellow for the halo, the aureole-speak a symbolic language through color itself.