The Education of the Virgin

About the artwork

The Frick Collection catalogues this work as Studio of Georges de La Tour and describes its authorship as much debated. The workshop qualification is essential to its identity. A 1996 account reported an attribution to La Tour’s son Étienne on the Frick label, but the current studio designation is broader.

The traditional subject is Saint Anne teaching the young Virgin Mary. Neither Anne’s name nor this lesson appears in the canonical Gospels. The open book and shared candle turn an inherited sacred subject into a recognizable act of teaching, while the studio designation points to a similar transmission of skills in the making of the painting itself.

Featured in: Georges de La Tour’s Bible Paintings: The Candle Painter Hidden Under Other Names

What does 2 Timothy 3:15 mean?

Second Timothy 3 recalls Timothy’s knowledge of sacred writings from childhood and their ability to make him wise for salvation through faith in Christ. The surrounding passage calls him to remain in what he has learned and received from trusted teachers.

The verse addresses Timothy, not Mary. Its connection with Anne’s lesson is thematic: Scripture is learned through relationships and over time. The shared light gives that process a visible form without turning the tradition about Mary’s childhood into a biblical event.

Second Timothy 3:15 offers a biblical parallel for the traditional lesson: the formative knowledge of Scripture received from childhood.

Sources

The Frick Collection, New York collection record.

Image source and rights declaration.

2 Timothy 3 — Berean Standard Bible. The paired text read with its surrounding chapter.

Georges de La Tour’s Bible Paintings: The Candle Painter Hidden Under Other Names. Exact-work research, history and interpretive qualifications for this reading.