St Joseph and Jesus (2024)

Happy Feast of St Joseph.
Painted 14 March 2024

‘St Joseph and Jesus (2024)’,
Vincent Cavanagh, 2024

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This painting may have only taken a day to paint, but it was a whole year—and two months—in the making. The product of a deadline that I didn’t think that I was even supposed to be working towards and God’s Timing. Aack!


​​Leaving the histrionics aside, the photograph that this picture of St Joseph and the child Jesus is based upon was taken at a local church just before mass. A father was sitting with his family in a pew, about three rows over, holding his sleeping youngest son over his shoulder. One of those “take a photo or regret it”–moments from God.

In the end, very little actually changed from the photograph—well, apart from changing clothes to robes, adding head coverings, and including hair on the back of St Joseph’s head, of course.

Holy Family (detail), William Holman Hunt, The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple, 1860 ( Reference )

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Colour–wise, I do admit taking a very strong inspiration from Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt’s The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple, his effort of producing an ethnographically correct depiction of “Christ Among the Doctors” (of the Jewish Law), for which he travelled through the Middle East searching first-hand for information about Jewish customs and finding models for the figures he wished to depict.

He was very specific in including Biblical symbolism in his work: the colours of Jesus’ robes being the same blue, purple, and crimson that God instructed Moses to use for the veils in the Tent of Meeting as well as in the robes for Aaron the High Priest (Exodus 26 and 28, respectively).


​The one–and–a–half day deadline (getting back to the histrionics) was because the whole reason behind this rush was the intention to gift a printed version of ‘St Joseph and Jesus (2024)’ to the housemates of the Joseph House, a men's discernment house in the Diocese of Broken Bay, at a youth event on the night of the day after the day I had left to paint the picture by.

This whole hectic schedule of events was due to a conflicting parish event after the youth night and the lateness of the St Joseph’s Day Eve party at Joseph House being on at a prohibitively late time for me to attend.

In the end the picture was printed (Thank God!) and present to the housemates, and it should now be hanging somewhere inside Joseph House.


Vincent Cavanagh
​19 Mar 2024

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Now, as for an update on my previous update about working on writing down my experiences of WYD Lisbon, that’s no longer moving forward. I’m not joking when I write that it was a commandment from on high. And given how much I was reliving certain emotions to an unhealthy amount, I’m more than alright with just letting it drop and focusing on what God actually wants me to be focused on instead. 

Ask God before you leap into things whether you should be leaping into them at all.

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P.S. Also, the writing was the reason that I only had a single day left to paint Joseph and Jesus. (Face palm) Oi vey!

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