She was born in southern Austria, Marianne Preindlsberger. She married in 1884 to English landscape painter Adrian Stokes and took her name. This Madonna was painted c.1907, when she lived near the Adriatic Sean, on the Dalmatian coat, present day Croatia. She chose a young woman from the village as her model and posed in the traditional Dalmatian costume, one that betrothed couples of noble extraction wore at their engagement. In the background, interlacing thorn branches point to the crown of thorns that will surround the head of Jesus, as well as the Immaculate Herat of his Mother. Rising through these spiky vines stems of Garden Angelica (Angelica archangelica), formerly called "the Holy Ghost plant," recall the conception of the divine Savior. This medicinal herb, once used as a remedy against snake bites, is well suited to the one whose heel is destined to crush the malevolent head of the ancient Tempter. It is also said that the honey like fragrance of Angelica evokes the marvelous and inimitable aroma of sanctity that the Mother of God released at her Dormition.
Critics has objected to how Marianne Stokes depicts the Virgin Mary with a fixed gaze, lacking in emotion, as if the artist placed resignation and submission at the pinnacle of feminine Christian virtue. But no, what we are rather offered her for contemplation is the serene face of the one for whom and through whom God has done wondrous deeds, and who "kept all these things, pondering them in her heart" (Luke 2: 19).
Pierre-Marie Dumont, Magnificat, Dec 2011, Vol. 13, no. 10, page 480
I think this is the most mesmerizing Madonna & child I've ever seen. Look at her face. Look at baby Jesus' face. So beautiful.
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