Marianne Stokes was an Austrian painter in the late 1800’s who married the well-known English artist, Adrian Stokes.  Together they travelled Europe, he painting landscapes and villages, and Marianne painting portraits of the local peoples and their customs.  I particularly love this portrait of a woman praying on Candlemas Day.  Her Madonna and Child (below) is one of the most beautiful I have seen, with the patterned gold silhouettes of flowering blooms and thorns, probably referring to the Christ child’s future death.

There are also some beautiful “homely” pieces that she painted.  This young girl in the sunny meadow wearing traditional Eastern European clothing is charming, as is the mother teaching her daughter a lesson in their rustic home (lower right).

This portrait of a Hungarian bride is rich with detail of their historical garments, and apparently her work was a valuable contribution to the documentation of this culture.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the work of a historical artist, and how she depicted the liturgical lives of various peoples.  To see more of her work, you can visit this Pinterest board that shows the variety of subject matter and styles within her body of work.