New! Stella Maris – The Annunciation – Mary Lizzie Macomber – Beautiful Catholic Art – Archival Quality

In this profound and beautiful painting, the Angel Gabriel has delivered the Announcement to Mary, and she has accepted. If you look closely, you can see a bright star on her left shoulder, which is the symbol of her title, and the title of this painting: Stella Maris, which is Latin for Star of the Sea. That's what sailors called Mary as they were guided safely home by her.

Gabriel holds one lily which is symbol of Mary's purity, and behind her are many other lilies, which are the multitudes that have asked for Mary to guide them home to her Son. This is the role she accepted in the Annunciation.

Mary Lizzie Macomber (1861–1916) was a prominent, highly admired American painter known for her symbolic and dreamlike allegorical works. She was a latter day Pre-Raphaelite, the way Yeats described himself as one. She painted so many Catholic paintings that people assumed she was Catholic, but she never converted that we know of. We get the sense she was perched like a bird on the open door. She painted a couple of dozen Catholic paintings which we know of by lists of titles in her exhibitions, but sadly we are unlikely to see very many. Some were destroyed in her studio fire, and many disappeared into private collections and have not been seen for over a century.

This painting is one that surfaced early when, in 1922, Mr. and Mrs. Henry H. Sherman gave it to the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts. Oil on canvas. 24 1/8 x 20 1/16 inches. 1902–1903. (sources: worcester.emuseum.com and a citation of Charles A. Parker, “Mary L. Macomber,” The International Studio, vol. 47, nos. 185–188 (July–October 1912), pp. 61–64.)

** 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 Sue Kouma Johnson – Classic Catholic Art.