As Jesus left his family before his ministry, he would have said goodbye. Not that he wouldn’t see them again, but the time for their happy family life was past. In this picture, Jesus says final goodbyes to his mother, Mary. Joseph is in the doorway. There is something very sad in life about good things being over, that the children have grown, and their time of being children is over. Despite the glory of what is to come. Despite the joy we await.

Piotr Stachiewicz (1858-1938) was a Polish painter who did a lot of Catholic work. He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow, Poland, under Jan Matejko, Władysław Łuszczkiewicz and Florian Cynk. Besides Catholic work, he also did historical paintings, portraits, and pictures of family life. We carry his God's Year series elsewhere in the shop. What we love about the Poles in general is that they are the only other industrial nation, besides the USA, that has a widespread, deep faith.

** 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.