Portrait of St. Rose Draped with Roses (M 024a) Rectangular Sticker

Saints_Aplenty favours the NeoGothic style of devotional print that dominated production in Belgium, Northern France, Switzerland, and Germany from c. 1875-1925. But, tastes change even in conservative religious art. From 1890-1910, a new style arose in reaction to NeoGothic historicism: Art Nouveau. Art Nouveau (in French or Jugenstil in German or Stile Liberty in Italian) was an international art movement that took its inspiration from the natural world. For devotional prints, it meant that gold flash backgrounds, stiff poses, formal compositions, and stylised decorative motifs were becoming passé. Of course, most printers had a heavy investment in lithographic stones and their images in the older style. As a result, many printers reworked their existing means of production to include the more naturalistic plants and flowers favored by the new. Our St. Rose here is one such adaptation. Though not NeoGothic in style, ‘St. Rose by Night’ was given the same kind of makeover: Her original image was cropped to just a portrait bust then a fancy frame, a lace-like decorative band, and roses were added to give the image a new look and a second life in the marketplace. The version with the plain white background most closely mirrors the original source; our pink and blue versions (with or without the dotted pattern) are remixes. + The feast of St. Rose of Lima (1586-1617) is August 23. + Image Credit (M 024a): Detail of an antique image of St. Rose of Lima extracted/adapted from a late 19th-early 20th century devotional chromolithograph, originally published by Josef Müller, Art Publisher, Munich, Germany, from the designer’s private collection of religious ephemera.