We confess that until recently we did not know that van Gogh had ever done religious subjects. Then we found this Good Samaritan painting of his! Although we tend to avoid museum pieces in our shop, this one was too beautiful to ignore.

"The Good Samaritan (After Delacroix)" portrays the man from Samaria pushing the robbed man onto his horse. In composition, its structure is a copy, in reverse, of an 1849 Delacroix painting. Today we call that an "homage." But van Gogh added things, besides his wild explosion of color. In his you can see two men in the background who passed him by, the priest and a man from the house of Levi.

Jesus told this allegory to show us that virtue comes from behavior, not status, and right behavior comes from the heart. Following Jesus means loving him, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus said the whole of the law can be found in that.

Van Gogh painted this in May, 1890, while he was in a mental institution. It is shortly before his death in July, 1890, and done in his style of plastering paint on the canvas using a palette knife instead of a brush. This was his 783rd painting. He would do 85 more, all masterpieces, before he died two months later. (source:

** 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. All Approx! Fine art printers do this because the images are almost never the same rectangular ratio of the standard paper sizes. It also gives the prints a finished look, and lets them look good in a frame without 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 - CatholicArtAndJewelry.