Charles Bosseron Chambers was an accomplished illustrator and portraitist. His highly stylized signature (almost indiscernible) is found on perhaps the best known and most widely reproduced image of the infant Christ-The Light of the World. Chambers was born and raised in Saint Louis, Missouri and brought up within devout Catholic household.
Like the majority of American artists of the day, Chambers sought an art education in Europe studying at both the Berlin Royal Academy and the Royal Academy of Vienna. He also studied in Dresden and Italy. Due to his mother’s ill health, the family then moved to Florida where Chambers’ art career first took hold painting society figures such as Henry Flagler, Henry Phipps and many others.
In 1916 Chambers moved to Manhattan with his wife Anne, the niece of Archbishop Patrick Freehan of Chicago. In 1919 Chambers was commissioned to do work for the newly built St. Ignatius Church in Rodgers Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. There Chambers produced a painting of St. Joseph holding the infant Christ. It is the face of the infant Christ from that painting which would become the image known to millions of Catholics as The Light of the World.
Between 1920 and 1950 literally millions of Chambers religious paintings became reproduced and widely displayed. Chambers also did other illustration work as well including Sir Walters Scotts “Quentin Durward” for Scribners, together with many advertising commissions. But it was his work in the religious field which were converted into prints, holy cards, calendars and magazine covers that brought him national recognition and a steady source of income.
Along with The Sacred Heart of Jesus, The Little Flower, The Immaculate Heart of Mary, St. John The Baptist and many others, the offered lot clearly illustrates Chambers high skill as a painter. It also demonstrates an immediate and unambiguous approach to his themes. An approach and style that conveys an innocence of holiness which continues to produce generations of admirers who connect in a most personal and deeply spiritual way to his work.