This beautiful work was done by Henry Siddons Mowbray (1858-1928), an American artist. He started his career doing romantic work in a lush yet precise manner. He moved to Paris and got his early work in the Salons. He supported his wife and children by doing lovely paintings and magazine illustrations in the style of the day.

Then in the early part of the 20th Century, Mowbray fell in love with Italian Renaissance painting. He took several trips to Rome to study the great masters. He added elements of their style into his own. He could incorporate into the Renaissance style many of the things artists had learned in the centuries since then, especially the emotive qualities of 19th Century narrative art, where the viewer experiences more of the subject of the painting because they can sympathize more closely with the story being told.

The results were absolutely unique in painting at the time. He became famous and produced many murals and paintings with that mix of modern and Renaissance.

In this case, Jesus is in the desert. He is praying and fasting, contemplating the work he must finish. The angels are ministering to him, as they will in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The oil-on-canvas painting has the look of a fresco. It is done in the old way, yet it is distinctly modern and vivid. Mowbray found power and reverence in Renaissance painting ideals and brought them into the modern age to express his faith.

Painted between 1915 and 1925. Thus it is in the public domain. We have spent a lot of time restoring it, as it had taken on significant damage, and our resulting restoration work is copyrighted.

** IMPORTANT ** THE IMAGE IS SMALLER THAN THE PAPER! There is a white border of about 0.5" inch for 5x7", 1.3" for 8.5x11", or 1.6" for 11x14" pictures. All Approx! Fine art printers do this because the images are almost never the same rectangular ratio of the standard paper sizes. It also gives the prints a finished look, and lets them look good in a frame without a matt.

- 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!

Thanks!
Sue & John

"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 - CatholicArtAndJewelry.