Charles Green (British 1840-1898)
An Old Fashioned Christmas Dinner
watercolour, signed and dated lower left "C Green 1894", Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour label on back with title and artist name
Size: 22 h x 33 w in (with frame 33 ¼ h x 41 ½ w in)
J20974
After his marriage to Queen Victoria in 1840, Prince Albert introduced German Christmas traditions to England, such as the Christmas tree, cards, stockings and Father Christmas. The Royal household embraced the festive traditions as did the Queen’s loyal followers. Victorian writers such as Charles Dickens wrote about these festivities and painters and illustrators brought these scenes to life with Christmas-themed works capturing the nostalgia and spirit of Victorian Christmas celebrations. These works frequently depicted families gathered to celebrate traditions such as feasts displaying festive tables laden with holiday treats.
This particular image was reproduced in 1896 as a Pears Pictorial chromolithograph as “Christmas Comes But Once A Year”. Noted for their soap, the firm A & F Pears published a Christmas annual from 1891 to 1926, heavily illustrated with Christmas features and stories.
“Christmas Comes But Once a Year” was a play written for Worcester’s players while they were at the Rose in 1602-3, based on Five hundreth pointes of good Husbandrie ... by Thomas Tusser, where the phrase occurs in the following stanza of a holiday-themed verse:
“All Saints doe laie for porke and souse,
for sprats and spurlings for their house.
At Christmas play and make good cheere,
for Christmas comes but once a yeere.”
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