"St. Joan of Arc"
Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale

This is the Maid of Orleans. This is the sweet, simple peasant girl living a devout life while tending to her flock. For us, this is the true Joan. Most artists portray her carrying a banner into battle or being burned at the stake by the British, but this is how it started. A teenage girl living a prayerful life who was called by God to save France.

Joan said yes to God. If you read the transcripts of her trial, you can catch a sense of her character. She always tried to say yes to God. The painter, Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale, had a great skill for revealing the character of her subjects. This simple scene of a girl asked by God to be a warrior seems to us to be the most fitting representation of who Joan really was.

Eleanor Fortesque Brickdale (1872-1945, often signed EFB) was one of the major painters of her day, and also a major illustrator. She is a bridge from the Pre-Raphaelites to the Golden Age of Illustration. We love her style. At her best, it's not just pretty and engaging, it's true. This illustration is from her Golden Book of Famous Women (1919) which also contains two other prints of Catholic women Saints, Clare of Assisi and Catherine of Sienna. Along with her St. Elizabeth of Hungary from a different book, those four form a set. We offer all four of these beautiful prints in our shop, and they are some of our most popular.

** IMPORTANT ** The image is smaller than the paper! There is a white border of about 0.5" inch for 5x7", 1.3" for 8.5x11, or 1.6" for 11x14" pictures. The border gives the prints a finished look, and lets them look good in frames without using a matt.

- Acid-free paper
- Archival pigments, rated to last for generations.
- Cardboard backer
- Above story of the art
- Enclosed in a tight-fitting, crystal clear bag.

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

Original image is out-of-copyright. Descriptive text and image alterations (hence the whole new image) © by Sue Kouma Johnson - Classic Catholic Art.