Christmas Presents
Oil Painting
1882 (made)
1882 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
The presents that the children are carrying have probably been handed to them by the nun standing by the lighted Christmas tree inside the doorway. The two prosperously dressed women to the right may be benefactors. Christmas customs in Germany vary according to the area and the differing Christian traditions of the local people. These children are evidently in a Catholic area, and will think of their presents as coming from the Christ Child. Protestant children would receive presents from the Weihnachtsman, the equivalent of the British Father Christmas.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Christmas Presents (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Oil on canvas |
| Brief description | Oil painting 'Christmas Presents' painted in Germany by Hugo Adolf Oehmichen in 1882 |
| Physical description | The painting is of landscape proportions and shows a group of a dozen or so children coming out of a building (a church, or a church school) carrying Christmas presents which they have been handed, probably by the nun standing by the lighted Christmas tree inside the doorway. To the right, watching the children, stand two prosperously dressed women who may be benefactors, accompanied by a child dressed in a white furry coat, hat and muff; to the left is a less wealthy-looking woman in a green cloak, holding a baby and talking to two of the children. Most of the children are following an older girl leading a little boy who is holding a push-along horse; just in front of them a boy holding a toy windmill stoops to pick up some fruit which has fallen in the snow. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | Hugo Oehmichen/ 1882 (Signature; lower right corner; writing; paint) |
| Credit line | Dixon Bequest |
| Object history | Dixon Bequest, 1886 |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | The presents that the children are carrying have probably been handed to them by the nun standing by the lighted Christmas tree inside the doorway. The two prosperously dressed women to the right may be benefactors. Christmas customs in Germany vary according to the area and the differing Christian traditions of the local people. These children are evidently in a Catholic area, and will think of their presents as coming from the Christ Child. Protestant children would receive presents from the Weihnachtsman, the equivalent of the British Father Christmas. |
| Bibliographic reference | Kauffmann, C.M. Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, II. 1800-1900 . London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, pp. 79-80, cat. no. 173. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 1052-1886 |
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| Record created | February 23, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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