This was the first of Williams's large biblical compositions. The idea for this painting was conceived on a visit to Italy and Holland in 1951. The painting is composed of thirty individual portraits of family, neighbours and friends from infancy to old age. The sick and ageing were painted from life from models who came to the studio from the Home for Old Men, Hendre, Llandaff and similar old people's homes and hospitals at Llandaff, Ely and Whitchurch. The figure of the sick man is a model called Coslett, a young epileptic who had been institutionalised as a result of his illness. There are two black models: one from the Gold Coast and one from Liberia who were recruited from the Loudoun Square Methodist Mission in Cardiff's dockland. The figure of Christ was modelled by Norman Roderick, son of a Cardiff solicitor. The mother and child in the foreground are Joan Elizabeth Lewis (mother) and Janet Elizabeth Lewis (baby, now Janet Healan) and it is thought the father, Malcolm Colin Lewis, is the dark-haired man behind the left shoulder of the girl wearing a yellow dress. The Lewis family rented a room from Williams in the mid-1950s. Williams himself appears in a self portrait in profile on the far left. The painting took three years to complete and cost the artist over £900 in materials and model's fees. It was painted in the studio at Williams' home, Llandaff House, the former Bishop's Palace close to the Cathedral. It was hoped that on completion the painting would have been purchased by the Church in Wales which at the time was commissioning English artists and the sculptor Jacob Epstein as part of a major programme of interior restoration. The cost of 3,500 guineas was prohibitive. No buyer for the painting was found though it was exhibited widely and became a popular work. It was first exhibited at David Morgan Ltd, Cardiff (February 1955) and later at St. John's Church, Ebbw Vale (August 1958), the Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales, Ebbw Vale (August 1958), St. Michael's and All Angels' Church, Colvinstone (June 1959), Llandaff Cathedral (July 1960) and the Church of St Martin-in-the-fields, London (1962). It remained at St Martin's Lane for over twenty years where thousands of postcard reproductions were sold to raise funds. In 1981 the painting was lent to an exhibition at Maesteg Town Hall dedicated to the work of father and son, Christopher and Ivor Williams. Sometime after its return to London it was badly vandalised in the church. The painting was returned to the family and the artist's daughter Mair, not wishing to see her father's most important work disintegrate further, paid for its restoration
Biblical scene, Christ healing a sick man of palsy. The body of a sick man is lowered into a house, via the roof, on a sheet held either end by two men. The sick man is painted in grey tones and has a red blanket placed over the lower half of his body. Around the sick man are numerous figures including Jesus Christ who stands wearing a white robe. The other figures include, an old woman, two African men, a nude baby, a man wearing armour, an old man wearing a black jacket, a girl, two kneeling young women, middle-aged men and a distressed, dark-haired woman the latter supported by two men. Objects in the room include a ladder and two pots / vases. In the centre background is an open doorway through which can be seen a building and trees
