After viewing Munkáczy’s "Christ before Pilate" in fin-de-siècle Liverpool, Ager hung his own print on his study wall. It served as a source of inspiration for Kristus for Pilatus, Ager’s second novel. Penned in 1910, when the author was forty-one, it was a landmark novel for Norwegian-American literature, firing the first shot in a volley of quality works by many stateside authors, including O. E. Rølvaag.

Within a year, the novel was published again in Norway, by Aschehoug publishing house—the first novel by a Norwegian-American to be so honored. The title in Norway was changed to Presten Conrad Walther Welde, apparently in order to avoid confusion of the novel with a religious tract.

"Christ before Pilate" is seen here as it hangs today in the restored study of the Ager House in Eau Claire, along with some of Ager's possessions, including bookcase, pipe and portraits of three of his nine children—daughters Valborg and Solveig, and son Magne.