[1] The work is an oil-on-canvas polyptych in nine parts, resembling an altarpiece, with four panels on the left in a square, and other four on the right, and a large central composition representing the Crucifixion.
The polyptych was then to be presented at the 1912 International Exhibition of Contemporary Religious Art in Brussels, but two days before the opening it was refused because the jury deemed the altarpiece too "strong" and "dangerous ".
The work was later exhibited in Munich as part of Paul Ferdinand Schmidt's New Art Salon, where it elicited mixed reactions from the public.
The current polyptych was seized and transported to Munich for the “Degenerate Art” exhibition, which held more than 1000 works by Nolde.
[4] Today, the polyptych The Life of Christ is held in the museum of the Ada and Emil Nolde Foundation, in Seebüll [de].