In the Arms of Joseph

Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. ~ Matthew 1:20-21

You do not see images of Joseph with the baby Jesus very often. I wanted to capture the great love that this earthly father must have had for his son and his Savior and at the same time represent the bond between all loving fathers and their children. Interestingly, the model in this image is the actual father of the baby. I painted a companion piece to this with Mary and Jesus where the model is the wife of the Joseph model, and of course the mother of the baby. I was happy to see the genuine tenderness that came through between these real parents and their child. ~ Simon Dewey

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