The ‘Annunciation’ painted by William Ewart Gladstone Solomon (1880–1965),  beautifully illustrates the Gospel  of Luke, chapter 1: 26-38. It illuminates the announcement of the Incarnation by the angel Gabriel and the ‘yes’ by the Virgin Mary.

The significant feature of this painting is the explicit use of a game of contrast and oppositions. In the foreground, occupying two thirds of the pictorial space, the painter represents the protagonist, the seated Blessed Virgin. To her right, in profile, is the winged Archangel Gabriel. The raised fingers of the Archangel signify the divine source of his message.

The Virgin is seated on a rug, in a meditative posture of obedience to divine will. At the feet of the Virgin lies a piece of fabric, constituting a representation of the late medieval tradition according to which the Virgin was weaving for the curtain of the Temple when the Archangel Gabriel visited.