This very devout and revernet picture of Mary and Baby Jesus shows them in the stable at Bethlehem. There is a stillness to it, and the attachment between mother and child seems very intense, although very quiet. The blue light over the town has a dreamy, moonlit quality, but the light of love between Jesus and Mary seems warm and a wonder.
Albert Gustaf Aristides Edelfelt (1854–1905) was a prolific painter with a huge reputation. His father had died young, and his widowed mother raised their children under financial strain. He went to a Finnish art school as a teenager, and at age 19 he went to Paris, of course, and studied at the great Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He stayed in Paris for years after that, his realist painting gradually acquiring the softer touches of Impressionism.
He achieved success in the Salons, especially with a painting of Louis Pasteur, which we hope to include later in our Heroes of Catholic Science series. Satrting in the 1880s, Edelfelt was doing pictures of Jesus and Mary. This painting dates to 1895, and has some of that illustration style to it that he'd have in later years. He'd had a very close relation to his mother, who had been widowed as a young woman and raised her children on her own, in difficult circumstances. That relationship presumably influenced his very reverent portrayals of Mary. (source: kansallisbiografia.fi)
1895. Oil on canvas. 44 x 64 cm. Owned and exhibited by Galeria Rogalińska, an art museum in Rogalin, Poland. Is it in the national museum in pozbah
– Acid-free paper
– Archival pigments, rated to last for generations.
– Cardboard backer
– Above story of the art
– Enclosed in a tight-fitting, crystal clear bag.
** IMPORTANT ** THE IMAGE IS SMALLER THAN THE PAPER! There is a blank border around the image. Approximately 0.5" wide for 5x7, 1.3" for 8.5x11, 1.6" for 11x14, and 1.75" for 13x17 and 16x20. For the two poster sizes, 18x24 and 24x36, we use 0.5" borders. We do this because the ratio of the rectangle of the art almost never matches the rectangle of the paper, and if it did happen to match one size, it would not match the others. Most fine art printers do this because otherwise they’d have to crop the art or warp it to make it fit the paper. The border looks good. It gives the picture a faux matted appearance.
There is almost always a little more border either on the left-right sides, or the top-bottom, depending on whether the ratio of the art is wider or taller than the paper.
We make Archival Quality fine art prints:
– Acid-free paper
– Archival pigments
– Cardboard backer for sizes 11x14 and less.
– Above story of the art
– Enclosed in a tight-fitting, crystal-clear bag.
– Rated to last 200 years without fading if kept dry and out of the direct sun.
Thanks for your interest!
JMJ
Sue & John
Lincoln, Nebraska
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“In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art.”
~ St. Pope John Paul II
Original image is out-of-copyright. Descriptive text and any image alterations (hence the whole new image) © by Sue Kouma Johnson – Classic Catholic Art.
