Perhaps because we enjoy books, this Madonna and Child has always been one of our favorites. Mary is often shown with a book in her hand in Annunciation paintings, but this is the only we know after that moment in her life where she is shown reading. It kind of reminds us of our own parenting, where we got so busy for a while with the children, we didn’t have time for much else.

But Mary is reading, and the child Jesus is looking down to see what Mommy’s looking at. According to the museum that houses it (Royal Collection Trust, England) Mary is reading a Bible passage that refer to the stock of Jesse (Isaiah 11) and Jesus is pointing to Mary as the origin of Christ.

William Dyce (1806–1864) was very devout and painted a lot of religious pictures similar in style to the Nazarene School of artists. He did a lot of pictures of Mary. Queen Victoria got this painting, and she liked it so much, she had it hung in her bedroom. Her husband, Prince Albert, liked it so much, he commissioned Dyce to do a companion piece of St. Joseph, which also is lovely and which we hope to carry soon.

** 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.