New! Shrine on a Thouisand Year Old Oak – Carl Lessing – Beautiful Catholic Art – Archival Quality

We are constantly looking for beautiful Catholic art, and when we find one like this, we hurry to share it with you. We were admiring this one as a beautiful landscape, wishing it were Catholic, and then noticed the people were kneeling, and then looked closely and saw the Madonna and Child on the tree. Then we saw the artist was Lessing, who did a lot of beautiful Catholic landscapes. It brings us joy to find and bring you these lost treasures of Catholic art.

Romantic painters loved to put Catholic elements into landscapes, explicitly manifesting the spiritual implications of that beauty and grandeur. They often used the oak tree as a symbol for life. In this one, the two horses are drinking at the streams while the two people lift up their eyes and quench their souls on the life of the Spirit of God. The structure of this painting is based off of, or at least reminiscent of, Psalm 42: “As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God.”

Karl Friedrich Lessing (1808–1880) was a German painter who was known for his splendid landscapes, often incorporating a Catholic element, such as a chapel or a worshipper. He was part of the Düsseldorf School of painting which was known for its romantic, detailed rendering of landscapes. We carry another Lessing painting in our shop right now, and hope to add another half a dozen.

"Die tausendjährige Eiche" 1837 123 x 165.7 (48x64 inches). cm Oil on canvas. Housed at the Stadel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany.

** 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

You might also enjoy original Catholic Art and Jewelry by me, Sue Kouma Johnson, here on Etsy at www.Etsy.com/shop/TreeOfHeaven

Also, check out our Catholic Quote shop, where we are pairing authentic quotes from Saints with Art: www.Etsy.com/shop/CatholicQuote

“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.