Friar with Crows – Beautiful, Serene Catholic Art Print – Archival Quality

"Friar with Crows"
Anonymous

This is one of our personal favorite pictures in the shop. There is a tranquility to this scene that we find very appealing. We ought to add a category called "Devotional Landscapes." The old hermit is a Franciscan. He is out in nature at his hermitage, he has his Bible out, and he is taking a moment to share some food with Brother Crow. The crows seem very familiar with the routine. These are his daily companions. What the friar has is very spare and simple. Notice the pipe of running water just below the Bible and the little shrine to the right of his hermitage. He lives an austere life, but one that seems spiritually rich to us.

The oil on canvas picture has been dated to 1907, but somehow the artist's name is not yet married up to this unsigned painting. It is a highly skilled rendering. Our guess is the artist had a lot of19th Century French or possibly German training. As academic painting added more narrative elements, it led the way for the golden age of illustration developed in the late Nineteenth Century. Artists learned to feature their subjects in a way that told a story. For us, this is a very comfortable story, one we enjoy looking at. It gives us a sense of serenity, an atmosphere of Godly simplicity. We can imagine feeding that crow some of our lunch as we paused from our Bible study.

** IMPORTANT ** There is about an inch-and-a-third of white space around the picture in the 8.5x11 size, so the IMAGE IS SMALLEER THAN THE PAPER! For 11x14, the border is about 1.6 inches, and for 5x7, the border is about .5 inch. This is because the rectangle of the painting has a different ratio than than rectangles of the various paper sizes. 

- 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.

Thanks for your interest!
Sue & John

St. Mary's Parish, Lincoln, Nebraska

"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 image alterations (hence the whole new image) © by Sue Kouma Johnson - Classic Catholic Art.