Rosa Mystica. Our Lady beckons to us in a garden of large roses, with a circle of Cherubim above her head. The colors are sublte and rich, and we thought it looked great in the brassy colored frame, which haromonizes with the colors.

The round picture is ababout 3 inches in diameter, and you can discern the aproximate frame size by that and by our daughter Geneivieve's hand! These are all pretty much adorable "fun size" pictures, perfect for a prayer nook, a desktop, or even as an accent on a wall with other pictures.

French Symbolist painter Edgar Maxence (1871-1954) painted this gorgeous picture. We think he did several versions of this painting, as several slightly different versions show up online. Painters often used to paint multiples of their best sellers.

One iteration is in the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia. They date the picture to the 1890s. Allow us to get acadmic for a moment, if you will. We would suggest late 1890s is the very earliest, but we think it's probably later. Maxence did a sister painting to this one, of St. Therese of Lisieux. Therese didn't start getting world famous until after her death in 1897, and there's no reason Maxence would have painted her before that time, if he'd even had heard of her. Both pictures have the same Art Nouveau vibe, but that style went on until the start of World War I, in 1914, so it could easliy have been painted in the 1900s or 1910s, when Therese pictures would have been in big demand.

In any event, our restoration is based on the version auctioned in 2015, which is listed in an auction record as being over 5 feat in diameter?! What? Can that be accurate? The Australian version is listend at 48 centimeters, or 1.5 feet, which seems about right. (sources: www.ngv.vic.gov.au, www.mutualart.com.)

Some of you may have noticed the resemblence of Mary, Our Queen, in this picture to Cate Blanchett, who played the great and admittedly mystical Queen Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings movies a few years back, and who was born in 1969.

– Comes framed

– Frame sizes vary from about 3.75" to 4.25". Image is 3" round.

– Hang on wall, or display on shelf or table

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

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