I kept looking at the curl in the middle of the boy’s forehead. The halo is easy to place. The curl belongs to someone who had to sit still long enough for a painter to get it right. I wanted to know what he’d been looking at when he turned his head.
Who is the child in Light of the World?
This is Light of the World by the American religious artist Charles Bosseron Chambers. The child represents Jesus. St. Anthony’s Guild identifies the model as Gilbert DeMille, the four-year-old son of the custodian at St. Ignatius School. In 1919 Chambers took a commission for the side altars of St. Ignatius Church in Chicago. He painted St. Joseph holding the child Jesus. The face that went into so many framed prints came from that larger picture. St. Anthony’s Guild account of the commission and model
Try to picture the larger scene for a second. There is an adult there. There are arms holding the boy. In the version I was looking at, all of that had fallen away. A child who had once been held now seemed to be looking out into a room on his own. I can see why people wanted that face in the house. I can also see how easy it would be to own it for years and never ask who sat for it.
How to identify an older Chambers print
The photograph shows the frame, the printed title and the image. For a printing date, I’d want to see the lower margin up close and the back of the frame. Check for a publisher, copyright line, framers’ label, or handwritten date. Any date on a framer’s label tells you something about the framing and may be much later than the print.
This is the kind of find I’d photograph twice in What’s It Worth?. First I’d scan the whole piece and ask which Chambers image it is. Then I’d add the small type and ask whether it identifies an edition I can compare with current listings. If the label has worn away, I’d be happy to leave the printing date open. I still get to look at that curl and think about Gilbert trying to hold it together for a few more minutes.