Australia Post has chosen an artwork in the collection of Newman College in Melbourne as this year’s religious stamp. Source: Melbourne Catholic.
The triptych, by Australian artist Justin O’Brien, depicts Mary holding the infant Jesus in the centre panel, with the events of the Annunciation and the Visitation featured on either side.
“We own the piece but not the copyright, so they don’t have to ask us, but they let us know,” Newman College rector Fr Dan Madigan SJ said.
“It’s great to be able to share it as it’s a beautiful piece. And it’s very nice that Australia Post do something like this, rather than Santa on a surfboard,’ he said, laughing.
“It’s taking Christmas seriously and just the fact that it’s contemporary Australian art.”
Born in Sydney in 1917, O’Brien was a celebrated Australian artist and a finalist in the Archibald Prize three years in a row (1937–39).
He was the inaugural recipient of the Blake Prize for Religious Art in 1951, which he won for an earlier triptych, The Virgin Enthroned, now hanging at the National Gallery of Victoria.
Cabrini Hospital in Melbourne commissioned O’Brien to paint the Stations of the Cross, which was completed in 1961. Another of O’Brien’s paintings, The Raising of Lazarus, was later accepted into the modern religious art wing of the Vatican Museums.
The triptych stamp was issued on November 3 and is described as “joyous” and “colourful”.
The 65c stamp shows the enthroned Virgin Mary with the Christ Child on her lap and surrounded by attending angels.
The international post stamp depicts the archangel Gabriel announcing to the Virgin Mary that she will bear Christ, the Son of God.
The triptych stamps are available as part of this year’s Australia Post Collectables.
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Putting a stamp on Christmas (Melbourne Catholic)
