Franciscan Hermit – Ludwig Sckell – Beautiful Catholic Art – Archival Quality

This charming scene, besides being enjoyable to look at, has a number of details which add to our delight. A wizened old Franciscan friar is living alone in his hermitage out in the presumably German woods. He has come outside to water his garden, while there is a fire in his hearth inside. Three rabbits wait by his door, and a little deer is nosing his way towards our hermit. We think when he comes out, his woodland friends know that a snack may forthcoming, fresh from his fenced-in garden. Also, if you look, there is a stone staircase next to the deer, going up to where we do not know, but would like to. The giant stone outcropping next to the cabin is symbolic of his living on the Rock. Artist Ludwig Sckell (1833-1912) was a prolific German painter, very famous in his day, one of the great landscape painters of the 19th Century. He was actually born on a mountain, Lock Mountain in Bavaria, and his father was a famous horticulturist, Carl Ludwig Sckell. He spent most of his adult lif