Countdown to Christmas 2025
In the lead up to Christmas I’m going to share a piece of artwork each day.
If you want to see what piece of art I choose each day visit this page on the website, or if you would like to have the artwork drop into you email inbox daily sign up to that by clicking here.
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December 1st
Love of Winter by George Bellows (1914)
What a wonderful picture to start the countdown! I don’t know about you, but I love it when it snows. I know it brings a great deal of inconvenience…. But I personally think the fun and beauty of a blanket of white is worth it!
The artist, Bellows, loved the snow too. Early in 1914 he complained that there hadn’t been enough snow for him to paint. He said to a friend ‘There has been none of my favourite snow. I must paint snow at least once a year’. Almost as if his complaints were heard a huge blizzard hit New York, where he was staying and covered the city in a thick layer of snow. Excited by this Bellows set to work creating this wonderful painting.
Showing crowds of New Yorkers enjoying what the snow had to offer it is a truly splendid painting. I love the way that he uses bright reds, yellow and greens to make certain individuals stand out in the predominantly cold and blue environment. The way the skaters lean and give the sense of movement is masterful, and the heartwarming feel of the parents and children in the foreground is well observed. It is well worth spending some time looking at all the details Bellow has included; the trees and buildings in the background, his use of occasional dots of colour here and there, the strong use of light and dark... all adding to the drama, and excitement of the picture.
We may not get snow as heavy as this over this Winter, but I do share the idea in the title of this piece: I love winter
December 2nd
The Annunciation Edward Burne-Jones, 1879
At the start of the Christmas story is ‘The Annunciation”, a fancy name for the bit where the Angel Gabriel tells Mary that she is to have a baby- Jesus. This part of the story has been painted hundreds of times, in so many different ways. This year I have chosen the version of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones. He produces the most amazing paintings full of ethereal qualities, almost magical, with stunning hyperrealism. This painting is no exception.
We see Mary in plain white clothes, to reflect her innocence and her ‘ordinary’ nature. Every fold of the fabric is meticulously painted and feels like if she let the fabric fall from her left hand it would slump to the floor. Hovering above her (in a slightly awkward, almost theatrical way) is the Angel Gabriel, with splendid clothes and his dazzling wings just showing.
What with these amazing figures and his demonstration of perspective in the background, Burne-Jones is really showing us he knows his stuff when it comes to painting… and I love it!
The ‘hidden detail’ in plain sight in this picture is the carved scene decorating the arch way. Adam and Eve are being banished from the Garden of Eden after their terrible mistake of tasting the apple. A mistake that eventually leads, according to the Christian story, to the need for Jesus to be born.
But for all this splendor it is the faces in Burne-Jones’s painting that fascinate me. I feel drawn in by the innocent beauty of Mary and the majestic strength of Gabriel. I hope you are drawn to them too.
December 3rd
The Christmas Fair - George von Rosen 1872
‘There is nothing new under the sun’ as the expression goes! Christmas has always been a time for overspending on ‘stuff’ that we quite like, but don’t need. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that stockings full of bits and pieces that will probably be in the bin or the back of a draw a few weeks after shouldn’t happen. Gift giving, however small, make Christmas morning fun and exciting, and I personally love it!
Here we have a painting of a couple out shopping, set a good few years ago! The Artist, von Rosen (a French born Swede) was greatly influenced by Medieval and Renaissance times and many of his paintings show scenes of olden times. We can see the couple laden with Christmas goods; gifts for children, musical instruments for jolly making, and a Christmas tree for the house. All paid for from that rather wonderful pouch which no doubt has the money in it! We see others at the Christmas Fair, a pig being led off to a less than happy end, a child peering at edible baked treats (notice the kringla on the sign above the shop), and a toy saleswoman, showing her wears! All of this seems strangely familiar. Apart from the clothing (and possibly the live pig!) this could be any shopping center in any town over the lead up to Christmas.
Nothing new under the sun!
One detail I’m not sure on is the rather bulky appearance of the woman. Is she carrying more shopping under that shawl or just keeping her arms warm? Or is she carrying something else… an unborn baby perhaps? Is this who all the presents are for? What a time to have a baby!
December 4th
Cutting Christmas Trees - Hans Andersen Brendekilde 1885
As I wonder around at the moment, I am delighted to see that there are Christmas trees popping up in people’s windows everywhere. Mine is yet to go up but will do soon. I love a Christmas tree and spending time decorating it ‘just so’ is important to me. So, I thought it was high time to have a Christmas tree painting.
Hans Anderson Brendekilde (… yes, he is a distant relative of that story writer!) was a Danish social realist painter. He is famed for painting scenes of everyday life from rural Denmark showing life as he saw it.
Here we have an amazing painting where a family are choosing and collecting their Christmas tree. There are several aspects of this painting that I love. First of all, the woodland itself. It has a beautiful almost hazy feel to it. A collection of daubs and sharp strikes of paint build up the multiple textures that you would find in the countryside; the softness of leaves, bracken, and frosty muddy soil and the sharpness of bare branches and dead grasses. All beautifully painted.
Then we have the people. The adults are at the back doing the actual work, and the three boys, I think brothers, are in the foreground. One of them is occupied looking in the undergrowth, unaware or unworried about the other two. The artist has captured that wonderful moment of the older brother telling off the younger brother. It makes me wonder what he has done!
Collecting my Christmas tree will mean a visit to the loft, not a woodland, but this painting does make we wish I could go out into the woods and select my own that way!
December 5th
Washington Arch at Winter Twilight - Rachael Robinson Elmer 1914
Elmer produced a series of postcards (this is one of them) showing scenes around New York, and they caused quite a stir! Some commentators say that she single handedly changes the way people of the time used and thought about postcards of the city, selling them in up market boutiques to people of influence... And I can see why! The simple style and charm of this image, and the others in the series, capture a calm, elegant beauty of city.
Not bad for an artist who started her art training by taking part in a correspondence course on how to be an artist!
The muted colours and the wonderful orange glow in the sky perfectly show that Winter twilight mood. I like the clever way that Elmer has included the dash of red in the lady’s hat decoration. Without that the picture would be just a little flat.
The other thing that is not noticed right way, and once pointed out is so prominent, is the black lines that surround the arch and key elements of the picture. They make the imposing structure of the arch really stand out.
I think I would love to have received this card through the post!
December 6th
A Christmas Scandal - William Heath Robinson c1943
Heath Robinson is best well known for his drawings of outlandish, bazar, and totally impractical mechanisms to solve simple everyday problems (well worth looking up if you don’t know him). But here we have one of his other themes he loves drawing.
His whimsical illustrations of people in funny situations are a brilliant comment on society.
It is possibly Christmas morning in this charming picture. The congregation of locals go filing into the church. The Vicar and one of his parishioners casually stroll across the field deep in conversation.
But gathered at the front are a ‘bunch’ of women… I say ‘bunch’ because I don’t know what the collective noun is for gossips! I love the way Heath Robinson has drawn, and ridicules, the faces of each individual. Shock, fascination, disgust, …and total excitement! They have found ‘evidence’ to fuel their unpleasant whispers.
Two sets of footprints in the snow head to the lone tree, a jumble of snow at the base of the tree, and of course the small sprig of mistletoe. Then a pair of footprints leading all the way to the vicar and a mystery lady.
What damning evidence that will lead to ensure the vicar soon becomes the talk of the town over Christmas dinner…
….for those who have nothing better to do!
7th December
Armand Guillaumin - Hollow in the Snow 1869
Guillaumin was a contemporary of, and knew well, many of the famous artist that are very much part of the who’s who’ of art: Cézanne, Pissarro, van Gogh, Seurat, and Gaugin. He was part of the impressionist movement, and his paintings hold their own against many of these great masters. But he is not nearly as well known.
I really like this painting of his… it almost makes me shudder with cold! And it’s that part of a snow fall I hate the most where everything is still cold and there is snow everywhere… but it is starting to melt, and things get depressingly sludgy! The sun is up, but not really enough to do anything else than met snow. And come the evening the melted snow will become frozen again.
The lone figure makes this picture even more desolate feeling! It does make you wonder where she’s off to!
I don’t know if we will get snow this year. But if we do, I’m hoping it stays sludge free.
8th December
Vegetable Christmas Card – Herman Rothe c1880
It wouldn’t be a ‘Countdown to Christmas” without a very weird Victorian Christmas Card. The Victorians were certainly an odd bunch at times… and some of their Christmas Cards scream at you “What?.... why?....WHAT!!?”
And this one is no exception! We have a rather dapper gent in his jaunty hat, smart leather boots and red umbrella, in case it should rain on him! How Christmassy!
Not festive enough? Then the sealing wax letter with “A Merry Christmas to You” finishes it off.
I shall be writing my Christmas cards this week. But perhaps I should just follow the lead of the Victorians and wrap up a few potatoes and give them to loved ones instead!
9th December
José y Maria – Everett Patterson 2014
Here we have the next part of the Christmas story for this year. Mary is pregnant and has traveled to Bethlehem by donkey because of the census demand by the Roman Empire. On arriving at Bethlehem Joseph tries his best to find a hotel for Mary as she is due to give birth very shortly.
Patterson has given this story a witty urban twist, full of pathos, and humour. The heavily pregnant Mary, in her Nazareth High School hoody, rests on her donkey (and what a fabulous donkey) as Joseph - or JOSÉ as his name badge says - works his way through the telephone directory trying to find a hotel, with no luck. The weather is awful and the prospects of finding anywhere for the night is dwindling.
There are two reasons I love this picture:
Firstly, the humour. Cleverly dotted around the picture are Christmas story references. See if you can spot the references to the manger, the wise men, Bethlehem (David’s City), the shepherds…. In fact, the longer you look the more you find! There is even a wonderful ‘hidden’ bible reference! Let me know if you spot any!
The other reason is the wonderful way it reminds us that Jesus, and his family, were no strangers to hardship. He was born in the most awful of circumstances, with little to his name, his parents struggling to find accommodation in a strange land. All around the world, every day, there are children being born into the most dreadful of situations. However, the artist has given a sign of hope - just poking out of the pavement cracks is a new growth, young fresh and looking like it is ready to grow strong.
It is at Christmas that many people find hope and love, these are key messages for this time of the year.
10th December
Sugaring off – Grandma Moses c1943
The ever-popular American Folk artist Grandma Moses (real name-Anna Mary Robertson Moses) manages to capture the spirit of cold wintery days and the bustle of a Virginian small town perfectly.
Full of lively characters and little collections of individuals ‘stories’ her pictures are ones to spend some time with.
Sugaring off is the process of boiling maple sap and turning it into a sugar. It would be boiled in a big cauldron, often on cold snowy days! One of the traditional things to do is pour the sweet gloopy mixture into the snow to make a tasty treat! If you were skilled you would manage to create a wonderful spiral of this sweat treat, and you can see this in the bottom left of the painting.
I love the charm and simplicity Grandma Moses’s paintings…. Which are, of course, far from simple! That’s the beauty of them!
11th December
LA BABY David Yarrow 2022
A bit of a different one today. This is a photograph by the photographer David Yarrow. Famed for his outstanding photographs of both celebrity and nature he has used his talents to create stunning photographs that show the world as it is and, using ‘staged’ scenes, create a new look at the world.
Yarrow is a keen environmentalist, and humanitarian, raising funds for good causes.
This photo is not an emperor penguin that has strayed into Los Angeles City limits by mistake on a snowy day, but a ‘staged’ photo taken in Antarctica! Setting up a backdrop of a city limits sign (under very strict environmental guidelines) and with a lot of patience, Yarrow has captured this photo.
What he was trying to do was to get the viewer to look at the beauty and elegance of the penguin in a new light. Using the American phrase “oh my! You are so LA, baby!” (a slang way to say ‘You’re glamorous, stylish, beautiful, slick, trendy — like someone from Los Angeles’) he has created this image.
It’s deliberately ironic — taking an Emperor penguin in a freezing Antarctic storm and comparing her to a Hollywood starlet.
Yarrow is not afraid to take wildlife photography onto the level of high concept art!
12th December
Winter Scene in Moonlight - Henry Farrer 1869
This wonderfully chilly and crisp painting is a fabulous example of the painting of this artist. He painted using the principals of the Pre-Raphaelite movement of truth to beauty. Specializing in focusing on the overall impression of the picture and the tonal qualities of the colours involved he created these wonderful landscape paintings, using watercolour and gouache.
I love the peaceful stillness of this picture. I feel I am there- and I am the only person awake in the whole world as I see the scene. I am fascinated by moonlight shadow. How a dead lump of rock circling the earth can reflect so much light from a hidden sun that, at times, the nightime has a strange lit up quality of the day. A snowy landscape managing to amplify this quality.
Truly beautiful. And Farrer has painted that magical moment just for me! (or so it feels as I look at this picture)
13th December
Snow at Shinkyo Bridge, Nikko - Hasui 1930
Every time I look at a Japanese print of snow (like this one), I am constantly reminded, with some personal embarrassment, that for many years I didn’t realise it actually snowed in Japan.
I love the Japanese prints of snow, and this one is no exception. I think it is the way the print artists use the white of the paper for the snow and capture both the delicate softness and the solid strength of the snow that captures my attention.
This sacred bridge standing at the entrance of Nikko's shrines and temples, is shrouded in snow. The delicate falling of the flakes is portrayed so beautifully it is almost magical. The striking red of the bridge is in sharp contrast to the cold pale greys, blues and very subtle yellows and greens of the landscape, and this red gives it a feeling of great importance as it arches form one side of the picture to the other.
I could look at this picture for a very long time and get lost in its beauty.
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14th December
Weihnachtsbaum (Christmas Tree), Marianne von Werefkin 1911
This image is not clear and is almost like a hazy memory of a scene. And I think this is what the artist is trying to capture. A collection of children appears to be dancing around the floor holding hands in circles. The flow of their dresses and swish of their hair has a lovely feeling of movement. With the coloration of the floor suggesting polished wood and the hit of the fireplace an interior of some beauty.
The Christmas tree is large and solid, covered with bold decorations and candle lights, or is that just how it felt to the swirling group of girls?
The larger figure in the middle is gently guiding and feels part of the fun.
The vagueness of the scene is like von Werefkin is painting a childhood memory. As a girl in German-speaking and Russian-German cultural circles, it was common for children to dance or process in a ring around the Christmas tree (Reigentanz), often holding hands, sometimes singing. Perhaps this is her memory.
It is this vagueness and uncertainty I like in this painting. If I look back at my Christmases as a child, I only remember a hazy version of what I did – I am lucky as I remember the happiness and fun.
I hope you have some happy memories too.
15th December
Illustration for A Christmas Carol - Arthur Rackham 1915
One of the world’s most beloved and famous Christmas Ghost stories is that of Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol has been retold with cartoons, musicals, modernizations…. Even the Muppets have their own version (second only to the book itself, and of course Alastair Simm version film version!)
But today we look at a drawing created by the wonderful illustrator Arthur Rackham. His drawings are so evocative and create a detailed and believable world of Scrooge and the ghosts that visit! This one is Marley with his warning that Scrooge should, and can, change his ways!
The wonderful use of light and dark in this drawing is masterful, and adds to the drama, it almost looks like a theatrical production. It matched the drama of the book perfectly. If you haven’t already done so - actually read it, it’s well worth it! And if you do read it, look up Rackham’s other illustrations … you will see how spot on he is at every stage!
16th December
Cover Illustration for The Saturday Evening Post, December 28, 1940 Norman Rockwell
The department store Santa is a big thing especially in the USA in the 40s. The real Santa, of course, being far too busy to be everywhere, department stores would hire a ‘santa’ to stand in!
Here we have the moment a young boy (holding the Drysdale Department Store box he was given by Santa a short time earlier) suddenly realizing there is a striking similarity between that Santa and a ‘guy on the train’ traveling in the same direction! Rockwell, in his usual way has captured an ‘all American’ moment with fabulous charm, detail and humour! . I love the look on the boy’s face!
This illustration (like a lot of Rockwell’s work) was the front cover of the Saturday Evening Post, a magazine he had a long-standing relationship with, producing some of the most perfect Christmas paintings! It is clever how he has not included all the carriage of the train and just the bits that are important!
A lot of us are ‘stand in Santas’ this Christmas, and no doubt will be as tired as this one! But it is worth it... the magic of Christmas is a wonderful thing. Even if the ‘younger people’ in your life suddenly realise a striking similarity between you and Santa, it’s an opportunity to let them realise that all of us can be ‘Santa’ if we want and play a part in the magic!
17th December
Ready for Christmas: The Canteen under St. Martin's-in-the-Fields - Edmond Kapp 1941
Christmas still carried on through the Second world war even though many places were heavily bombed. Many people lost everything as their homes were destroyed. London was particularly effected, and people sort security and comfort in underground air raid shelters. Some of these were very basic (the London underground be a shelter for many), but some like this underground canteen we see in this lively pen drawing, offered more and were so vital to many. Canteens like this provided shelter and refreshments for those who had been bombed out of their own homes, or who were working as fire-watchers or on other Air Raid Precautions (ARP) duties. If we didn’t know the context because of the title, it just looks like any other jolly canteen all ready for Christmas, along with tree and decorations.
As we rush around stressing about our Christmas, and what we have to do in the few days left, it’s worth remembering those that lost homes, and even worse, family members, in multiple bombing raids. It’s also worth remembering that over the world it is still happening now!
