While the subject of the present work evokes a tradition of the Madonna and Child paintings that stretch back to the Medieval and Renaissance periods, Morrisseau’s use of colour presents something entirely new. The lively tints and heavy black lines recalls the jewel-like colouristic effects of cloisonné enamels. Monumental in size, the scene is remarkably fluid. As though Morrisseau was guided entirely by intuition, the composition feels arrived at almost automatically. Here, the two figures, whose beak-like mouths open in conversation, are joined by Morrisseau’s characteristic “line of communication” that is interrupted by a circle of blue, a colour that, for Morrisseau, represented spiritual protection. Atop the mother’s vertible arabesque of a headdress is a resplendent bird that sits in watch over the tender, maternal interaction.

References: For a work of the Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist, see Virgin Mary with Christ Child and St. John the Baptist, 1973, Department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs. The work is also reminiscent of the well-known work, The Artist’s Wife and Daughter, 1975 in the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. For the convention of “Lines of Communication”, see Lister Sinclair and Jack Pollock, The Art of Norval Morrisseau, (Toronto: Methuen Publications, 1979), p. 53.