Description

A Child Is Born by P. Buckley Moss

Introduction

A Child Is Born by P. Buckley Moss is the artist’s 2005 Annual Christmas Print, a reverent Nativity composition centered on the birth of Christ. Mary and Joseph kneel beside the infant Jesus beneath a luminous blue sheltering form, while angels rise above and two lambs rest quietly below.

Soft aqua, pearl white, dove gray, cream, and muted coral give the image an atmosphere of stillness rather than pageantry. Moss’s elongated figures and flowing lines bring the sacred scene into her distinctive visual language while keeping the Christ Child at the emotional center.

Canada Goose Gallery identifies the work as a 2005 Annual Christmas Print, a limited, numbered lithograph on paper in an edition of 3,000.

Story Behind the Artwork

The composition draws on the Christian Nativity tradition: Mary and Joseph gather around the newborn Christ while angels and lambs frame the scene. Rather than placing the Holy Family within a detailed stable, Moss simplifies the surroundings into graceful, almost architectural curves.

That restraint gives the image an intimate quality. The figures seem gathered within a protected space, while the angels above and lambs below create a vertical movement that leads the eye directly toward the infant.

No documented artist statement has been supplied explaining Moss’s specific interpretation of the scene, so the description should remain grounded in the visible imagery and established Christian subject matter.

Symbols & Meaning

The central infant identifies the work with the Nativity and the Christian celebration of Christ’s birth. Angels have long been associated with divine announcement and praise within the Christmas story, while lambs carry particularly rich meaning in Christian visual tradition.

The lamb became an important symbol of Christ in Christian art, emphasizing sacrifice and the biblical title “Lamb of God.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art notes that Christians adopted the lamb as a symbol of Christ centuries ago, giving the two animals at the base of Moss’s composition significance beyond their pastoral setting.

Artistic Details

The composition is strongly vertical. Two lambs establish the lowest register, the Holy Family occupies the center, and the angels rise above them. That arrangement gives A Child Is Born a visual sense of ascent while keeping the figures closely connected.

The pale blue arched form behind Mary and Joseph creates a luminous focal area around the Nativity. Above it, the angels are rendered with long, flowing shapes that seem to merge into the surrounding lines. Below, the dark faces and textured fleece of the lambs provide one of the strongest contrasts in the picture.

Canada Goose Gallery records the palette as including aqua, ash gray, black, charcoal gray, coral pink, cream, dove gray, dusty blue, pearl white, and turquoise.

Featured Master Collections

Primary Master Collection: Faith That Endures

This is the strongest assignment because the Nativity, angels, sacred imagery, and Christmas faith are the central subjects. Canada Goose Gallery defines Faith That Endures around churches, angels, prayer, Christmas, worship, sacred traditions, hope, grace, and spiritual reflection.

Supporting Master Collection: Christmas Traditions

The work is also an especially strong fit for Christmas Traditions, which specifically includes angels, Nativity scenes, Christmas imagery, and holiday traditions. Canada Goose Gallery’s collection framework describes the collection as “the sights, sounds, and memories that return every holiday season.”

Decorating Ideas

A Child Is Born works naturally in a living room, entry, dining room, bedroom, prayer space, or Christmas display. Its soft aqua, gray, and pearl-white palette is quieter than many traditional red-and-green holiday schemes, allowing it to complement neutral, traditional, cottage, or collected interiors.

Because the religious imagery is central rather than incidental, the print can also remain meaningful beyond the Christmas decorating season for collectors who display faith-centered artwork throughout the year.

Gift Ideas

This print is particularly well suited for Christmas, a new baby, baptism, christening, first Christmas, or a meaningful faith-centered family gift. Its Nativity subject can also make it appropriate for someone building a collection of Moss religious artwork or annual Christmas prints.

About the Edition

A Child Is Born was issued in 2005 as the 2005 Annual Christmas Print.

Medium: Lithograph on paper
Edition: Limited, numbered edition
Numbered edition: 3,000
Artist’s proofs: 25
Image size: 16¼ × 11¼ inches
Paper size: 19¾ × 14¾ inches
Condition: New, mint condition
Certificate of Authenticity: Included

The current Canada Goose Gallery product page independently confirms the 2005 Annual Christmas Print designation, lithograph format, edition of 3,000, mint condition, dimensions, vertical orientation, and Rare classification.

🎨 Fun Fact:

The lamb in Christian art carries a history much older than the familiar Christmas-card image. Early Christian artists adopted the lamb as a symbol of Christ, drawing on the biblical phrase “Lamb of God.” By the Middle Ages, the image had become one of Christianity’s most recognizable animal symbols, appearing in manuscripts, sculpture, altar decoration, and painting. That long visual tradition gives the lambs in a Nativity composition an added layer of meaning: they can recall both the shepherds associated with the Christmas story and the symbolic identity of Christ himself.

🖼️ Collector’s Insight:

What distinguishes A Child Is Born is the way Moss combines the Nativity with an almost architectural arrangement of figures. The Holy Family is enclosed within a cool blue central form, the angels rise above in sweeping lines, and the lambs anchor the composition below, creating a deliberate movement from earth toward heaven. For collectors of Moss’s religious work, the print also carries the documented significance of being her 2005 Annual Christmas Print. Its combination of Nativity, angels, lambs, and annual Christmas-edition status gives it several meaningful connections within the gallery’s faith and holiday collections without requiring unsupported claims about demand or future value.

Continue Exploring

Collectors drawn to the angels and sacred imagery in A Child Is Born can continue with:

• And There Were Angels Artist Proof, one of the works specifically selected for Canada Goose Gallery’s Christmas Traditions collection, or explore:
• Bright Messenger
• Angel Boy Etching
• Angel in Blue Painting
• Angel in White Painting
• Angelic Rhapsody through the broader Faith That Endures collection.

If the lambs are especially meaningful:

• The Lamb Etching
• The Lord Is My Shepherd provide strong subject connections within Moss’s religious work.

For collectors who want another Christmas narrative:

• A Star To Guide Them Artist Proof offers another faith-centered holiday pathway and is currently represented in Canada Goose Gallery’s rare-print inventory.

Suggested Categories & Subjects:

• P. Buckley Moss Fine Art Prints
• P. Buckley Moss Rare Art
• Christmas
• Religious
• Angels
• Lambs

There is also an A Child Is Born Ornament in current Canada Goose Gallery inventory, creating an especially natural cross-link for a collector who wants the same Christmas theme represented in another format.

 

 “At the heart of Christmas, a child is born.”