Books

Published within Rackham's edition of Moore's The Night Before Christmas in 1931. This fine watercolour of Father Christmas is one of four colour plates in the book and appears on page 31. Fred Gettings found that Rackham's watercolours for the work had "a vitality and charm which is lacking in many of the pictures produced by Rackham during that time". Writing to E. A. Osborne in 1935, Rackham recalled that the limited edition of the book sold out and "there was quite a fight over it. America went very strong for it". Original drawing (230 x 175 mm) on artist's board (267 x 188 mm), fine ink and watercolour, signed ("Arthur Rackham") lower right, mounted, framed, and glazed (framed size 373 x 315 mm). Pencil margins below mount; a vibrant and fine watercolour. Fred Gettings, Arthur Rackham, 1976, pp. 161-2; James Hamilton, Arthur Rackham: a life with illustration, 1990, p. 142.

The Night Before Christmas, also known as 'A Visit from St. Nicholas', is a poem first published anonymously in 1823 and later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore. The classic poem describes the visit of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.