Mother and Child, Watercolor Christian Wall Art

What is painted

Mary sits in a simple wooden chair beside a window, and the light falls across her shoulders and onto the child in her arms. He is asleep, his head against her, and she bends over him with her cheek close to his. There is no crowd, no stable, no angels: only a room, a chair and the two of them.

It is painted in soft watercolor, in warm beige with the blue of Mary's mantle, the color she has worn in Christian art for centuries. The washes are gentle and the edges soft, which makes the picture feel intimate. The print carries no text.

Mary, who pondered these things

The Gospels say little about the everyday life of Mary and her son, but Luke gives one line that painters have returned to for centuries. After the shepherds came and went, “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). This watercolor imagines one of those quiet hours: a mother holding her child and thinking about what she has been told.

The image of Mary with the child Jesus, known as the Madonna and Child, is one of the oldest subjects in Christian art. For Catholic and Orthodox Christians it honors Mary as the Mother of God; for all Christians it is a picture of the incarnation, God coming into the world as a baby who needed to be held.

Here she is not crowned or enthroned. She is simply a mother, which is what makes the scene speak to so many parents.

For a nursery, a new mother, or a baptism

This is a tender choice for a nursery or a baby's room, and a meaningful gift for a new mother or a mother-to-be. It also makes a lovely baptism present from godparents and a gentle piece of Catholic wall art for a bedroom or a prayer corner.

This Christian poster is printed on thick archival matte paper, made to order in the United States and shipped free within the US. It arrives without a frame, with a margin of paper around the picture, in sizes from 5x7 to 24x36 plus metric and A sizes. Of all Christian wall art, the Madonna and Child may be the image most often hung above a crib, and this version keeps it simple and soft, in pale colors that sit gently in a nursery.