A dove of peace carries the message "A Merry Christmas" as it flies above bulrushes - scan of original 1880 Christmas card made by a Victorian child
This is a high resolution scan of an original watercolour for the front of a Christmas card, created by a Victorian child in the family circle of May Chatteris Fisher (1874-1910), who became a professional artist when she grew up. It is a rare example of an artwork by a child growing up in Victorian England. Although drawing and painting were popular pastimes amongst children during the 1800s, both in the US and Europe, very few examples of their efforts have survived. Today, drawings and paintings featuring Victorian children are quite common, but almost without exception these are the work of adults. The card is inscribed inside 'With Daisy's love to Grandpapa' and was probably made by May's sister Margaret (known as Daisy), born in 1873, for May's maternal grandfather, John Chatteris, who lived at the family home,. We have assumed from the style of the picture that the artist was probably no more than 6 or 7 years old at the time. This means that the painting probably dates from circa 1880. May was born near Manchester in north west England, the second of three sisters. As an adult, and after studying at the Manchester Municipal School of Art, she became an accomplished book illustrator and bookplate designer. In 1901 and 1904, she illustrated two books of children’s fairy tales for the publishers Sherratt & Hughes: ‘Ignoramus’ by E. Todd and ‘Pixie’ by Frances Reddaway. In 1902, her works were praised in a survey, published in New York, of female bookplate designers on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1904, May married the established landscape painter, William Smallwood Winder (1869 – 1910), and subsequently signed her work MC Winder.
Size: 5946px × 8919px
Location: England
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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