“Portrait of a Couple at Century's End” was published in the late 1990s, when the world was looking forward to the approach of the twenty-first century. Many cultures around the world celebrate New Year's Day each year as a time of promise, when old troubles can be left behind and a better life can begin. The interest in the change of the calendar is intensified at the turn of each century, with the beginning of another hundred-year cycle. In 1999, that effect was made more significant by the fact that it represented the start of a new millennium, an event that had not occurred since the year 999, well before the Georgian calendar, which is common throughout the Western world, was introduced in 1582.

Because of the end of the millennium, expectations were raised as the year 2000 approached. Some evangelical Christians, for example, their expectations piqued by strict...