New! Mother Teaching Her Child to Pray – Jessie Wilcox Smith – Beautiful Catholic Art – Archival Quality

Jessie Willcox Smith (1863–1935) is one of our favorite artists. She was perhaps the Queen of the Golden Age of illustration, doing thousands of illustrations in books and magazines across her long career. She had a genial, warm-hearted touch and could get emotions precisely right in her narrative pictures. Americans could not get enough of her art at the time. We carry several of her other pictures in our shop, and hope to list a few more.

This exquisite scene of a mother teaching her child how to say their bedtime prayers catches the spirit of a personal, family moment: the transmission of the faith from one generation to the next. It is a crucial, existential task for a civilization, and one that is usually done with tender, motherly love. The child is kneeling before his mother, and she is directing the child’s thoughts towards Jesus and their Heavenly Father.

This was originally a commission in 1919 by “Interchurch World Movement” as a post-World War I poster. This movement was stimulated by the hopes of a better world after the war. The movement was focused on education and evangelization, and this was a fundraising poster for missionary work. The poster says, “The simple faith that made America great,” and we believe that. (source: southern.edu)

** 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

“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 www.CatholicArtAndJewelry.com.