About This Stamp
Issued in time for Christmas 2026, this stamp features a richly symbolic depiction of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child painted around the year 1500. Distinctive for its large central figure of Mary in red garments and an array of background details, the painting is in the collection of the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Now known by the modern title The Virgin and Child Enthroned, this painting bears a close resemblance to other works in collections in Europe and the United States. Art historians who have compared the various paintings have concluded that this version was created either in Brussels or in Bruges — cities in modern-day Belgium — in the 1480s or the early 1500s and shows the influence of Rogier van der Weyden, one of the most successful Netherlandish painters of his day.
Because the foliage is painted in a manner that resembles embroidery, art historians in the 1920s attributed this painting to an unnamed artist known only as “The Master of the Embroidered Foliage.” Scholars now believe that the painting was created in a workshop by several artists and assistants, as was common practice at the time.
This stamp continues a tradition of U.S. stamps featuring Madonna and Child paintings that began in 1966, four years after the debut of the first Christmas stamp. Madonna and Child stamps were issued nearly every year until 2009, with occasional departures to show other traditional Christmas imagery such as angels or Nativity scenes.
Since 2011, the Postal Service has issued a new Madonna and Child stamp approximately every two years. Offering the public the option of traditional imagery alongside more contemporary holiday designs, these stamps usually highlight fine art from the collections of museums in the United States. Each new issuance continues a long-standing U.S. stamp tradition while honoring the art and culture that mark the celebration of Christmas.
The Virgin and Child Enthroned. Image courtesy Clark Art Institute.
Stamp Designer, Stamp Art Director
Greg Breeding
Greg Breeding is a graphic designer and principal of Journey Group, a design company he co-founded in 1992, located in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was creative director until 2013, at which time he began serving as president and continued in that role through 2023.
Breeding’s fascination with modernism began while studying design at Virginia Commonwealth University. His affinity with the movement continues and motivates his ongoing advanced studies at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland most every summer.
As an art director for postage stamp design since 2012, Breeding has designed more than 100 stamps covering a diverse array of subjects, from Star Wars droids and Batman to Harlem Renaissance writers and the transcontinental railroad.
His work has been recognized in annual design competitions held by Graphis, AIGA, PRINT magazine, and Communication Arts.
Breeding lives in North Garden, Virginia, with his wife and enjoys nothing so much as frolicking on the floor with his grandchildren.