Pious passion

Anna Maria offers a view of mothers' work

by Leon Nigrosh

A SACRED PASSION: THE ART OF THE SISTERS OF SAINT ANNE At St. Luke's Gallery, Moll Art Center, Anna Maria College, 50 Sunset Lane, Paxton, through April 25.

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Sisters of Saint Anne, Anna Maria College (which is affiliated with the order) is hosting an exhibition of 40 paintings, enamels, and sculptures created by members of the order in the past century. In January, Alice Lambert, of the college's art department, traveled to Lachine, Quebec, just outside of Montreal, where she had less than six hours to choose work from the more than 1200 objects on display throughout the compound. Her choices, currently on display in the Moll Art Center, trace the teacher/student relationship between three generations and show the breadth of experience that these artists gained through their training.

In 1850, Esther Blondin (1809-1890) established the first Mother House for the Sisters of Saint Anne in the small village of Vaudreuil in Quebec. Taking the name Mother Marie Anne, she declared that the mission of this new order was to be "education within the context of vowed religious life." Since then, hundreds of women have spread the word through music, literature, and the visual arts. The German-born artist William Raphaël (1833-1914) was sent in 1879 by the bishop to assist the nuns with their art studies. He continued to guide them for 35 years, until his death at age 81.

A portion of the exhibition centers on several examples of Raphaël's own work. In his small landscapes portrait, we see the results of a competent hand and eye of a classically trained artist who draws upon the works of French landscape painter Claude Lorrain (1600-1682). Like his predecessor, Raphaël concentrated on idyllic, pastoral scenes with light-filled skies and wafting clouds.

Raphaël's influence can be recognized in several other works by the nuns. Sr. Marie-Osithe's (1867-1941) small oil Fishermen's Cabins is the near compositional equal of Raphaël's Houses Near the Seashore with its cluster of small buildings nestled in the crook of a placid bay. Such similarities are even more obvious when you compare her Sunset with his Summertime. The only major difference is that Osithe has replaced a certain rock with a large boulder. Her later pastel Our First Missionaries to Japan Leaving Victoria is treated in a more contemporary manner, with two figures silhouetted against a glowing sunset as a three-funnel steamship powers away from the foreground dock.

While the majority of work produced by the nuns of Saint Anne was usually on-site religious mural commissions or large religious paintings for private benefactors, the objects in this exhibition cover a range of subjects -- from a still life of apples and a wine bottle to perspective studies of leather-bound books. Artists like Sr. Arthur-Marie (1902-1986) treated religious themes with a modern touch. Her paired paintings, The Wise Virgins and The Foolish Virgins, which relate the theme of being prepared to meet Jesus, are broadly painted and richly colored in the poetic Realist style of the 1960s.

By far the most accomplished and prolific artist of the order, Sr. Marie-Hélène-de-la-Croix (1861-1956), produced more than 300 paintings during her long career, all while continuing to teach. Along with some of her landscapes and still lifes, this exhibit contains a half-dozen of her portraits of children. In The Child and the Bird (Gabrielle Latouche), she captures both the essence of her sitter and the serenity of the scene in much the same way Raffaello Sanzio (1483-1520), the famous Raphael of the High Renaissance, did with his chiaroscuro technique of sfumato -- Italian for "gone up in smoke." By deftly applied very delicate gradations of light and shade, the Sister evokes an inner glow from her subjects' facial characteristics without turning them into maudlin facsimiles of more-conventional religious paintings.

This exhibition, which represents a fraction of the output by the Sisters of Saint Anne during the preceding 100 years, offers the first opportunity ever for the public to view these works outside of the walls of the Mother House.

The gallery is open Monday through Friday from 1 to 5 p.m., Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m., and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. Call 849-3318.