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.
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.
Place of Origin
Germany (made)
Date
1882 (made)
Artist/maker
Oehmichen, (Adolf) Hugo, born 1843 - died 1932 (artist)
Materials and Techniques
Oil on canvas
Marks and inscriptions
Hugo Oehmichen/ 1882
Dimensions
Height: 89 cm canvas, Width: 113 cm canvas, Height: 133 cm frame, Width: 157 cm frame, Depth: 15 cm frame
Object history note
Dixon Bequest, 1886
Descriptive line
Oil painting 'Christmas Presents' painted in Germany by Hugo Adolf Oehmichen in 1882
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Kauffmann, C.M. Catalogue of Foreign Paintings, II. 1800-1900 . London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1973, pp. 79-80, cat. no. 173.
The following is the full text of the entry:
Hugo OEHMICHEN (b. 1843)
German (Düsseldorf) School
Essentially a genre painter, he was born at Borsdorf near Leipzig, became a pupil at the Dresden academy and, after a study visit to Italy in 1866-67, settled in Düsseldorf in 1869.
173
CHRISTMAS PRESENTS: CHILDREN LEAVING A CONVENT SCHOOL
Signed and dated lower right Hugo Oehmichen 1882
Canvas
36 ½ X 45 1/8 - (92.7 X 114.5)
Dixon Bequest
1052-1886
A similar subject appears on a painting by Oehmichen dated 1865, in the Leipzig Gallery.
Prov. Joshua Dixon; bequeathed to Bethnal Green Museum in 1886.
Materials
Oil colour
Techniques
Painting
Subjects depicted
Children; Toys
Categories
Children & Childhood; Paintings; Education & Learning
Collection code
MoC
