"Friar with Crows"
Anonymous

There is a tranquility to this scene that we find very attractive. The old monk has his hermitage, he has his Bible out, and he is taking a moment to share some food, perhaps his lunch, with a couple of crows. They seem to know the routine. These are his daily companions. Otherwise what he has is very simple. Notice the pipe of running water just below the Bible and the little shrine to the right of his hermitage. He lives a spare life, but one that seems rich and restive to us.

The oil on canvas picture has been dated to 1907, but as yet an artist has not been identified. The painting is unsigned. It is skillful though, a nice sample of the golden age of illustration developed in the late Nineteenth Century, where artists learned to feature their subjects in a way that told a story. For us, this is a very comfortable picture, one we enjoy looking at. It gives us a sense of calm, an atmosphere of Godly simplicity.

This is a nice decorative piece where the Catholic faith, though infused throughout the picture, is not as forcefully projected as with many of our pictures. It has a subtle, Franciscan spirituality.

** 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

"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.