About this print

Children at the Cross

Two children stand face to face, both holding the same small olive branch and looking down at it, with a little wooden cross planted beside them.

What is painted

The girl, on the left, has long wavy brown hair crowned with a wreath of tiny white flowers. She wears a long white dress gathered with a wide blue-gray sash tied at the side, and flat brown shoes. The boy, on the right, has short curly hair and wears a white tunic with a terracotta stole over one shoulder, fringed at the ends, and sandals. Their hands meet around a single olive sprig bearing a few green olives, and both heads are bent toward it.

Behind the boy stands a simple wooden cross, not much taller than he is, with small yellow wildflowers growing at its foot. The watercolor is soft, in cream, blue and rust, on lightly textured paper with a patch of grass beneath their feet. There is no lettering.

White clothes, an olive branch and a cross

In many parishes, children receiving their first communion dress in white, the color of the baptismal garment. It recalls the white robe placed on a newly baptized person and the words of Paul, “as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). A first communion is the moment a child comes to the table for the first time, completing what baptism began.

The olive branch stands for peace, a meaning that goes back to the dove returning to Noah's ark with an olive leaf (Genesis 8:11). On Palm Sunday crowds cut branches to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem, and in some countries olive branches are carried and blessed that day in place of palms. The cross beside the children is plain and small, their size.

The painting does not tell a Bible story; it shows a moment in a child's own life of faith, shared with someone else.

A first communion or christening keepsake

This is a lovely first communion gift for a girl or a boy, or for twins, siblings or cousins receiving the sacrament together. It also suits a baptism, a confirmation, an Easter present or a Catholic school classroom, and as catholic wall art it fits naturally in a child's bedroom next to a rosary or a crucifix.

This Christian wall art is a fine art print on thick archival matte paper, printed to order in the United States and shipped free to any US address. Choose from 5x7 to 24x36, or metric and A sizes. The Christian poster arrives without a frame, surrounded by a margin of paper, and a digital file is available as well.