Albert Edelfelt's draft

Albert Edelfelt’s (1854–1905) first pencil sketch for the work Christ Washing the Disciples’ Feet can be found in Edelfelt’s sketchbook, which is held in the collections of the Ateneum. However, a later sketch of the work has also been discovered in the Old Church. Edelfelt’s sketch was acquired from Stockholm, as the painting may originally have been intended as an altarpiece for the Old Church. The artist of the sketch had, however, fallen into obscurity, and the work was forgotten for a long time in the attic of the Old Church. The artist was uncovered only after a writing on the backside revealed who had made the sketch. Today, the work is preserved in the church’s art archive. Edelfelt painted the final oil painting in Helsinki in 1898, and it was sold to the Swedish National Museum in 1908.