A strange Christmas for all of us, so I am pleased to show a joyful, traditional scene.
Titled Christmas Eve, by the German artist Carle Rumpf, the picture might be termed folk art, a genre that gives many of the works an immediacy and playfulness, while often disregarding accepted ideas of scale and perspective.
This charming depiction of a happy and bountiful Christmas Eve was most probably painted in Frankfurt in 1821 and shows the European custom of celebrating Christmas Eve with presents.
Two hundred years on, my friend Katrin will be doing exactly that in Berlin on Thursday. A Happy Christmas to her.
Rumpf’s scene has the air of a children’s party and the setting has the slightly spartan feel of a schoolroom or, perhaps, an orphanage.
It has been suggested that the children may be choristers awaiting the midnight mass and services on Christmas Day. The air is alive with the chatter, music and laughter of a party in full swing.
The table is laden with presents and the scene is a visual feast with children enjoying a variety of games, while the split view on the right edge of the picture shows more guests climbing the steps to join the festivities.
Pencil and watercolour, heightened with white, 12 x 17 inches, Christmas Eve is signed, inscribed and dated, Zur Erinnering an den Weihnachtsabend/1821 (In memory of Christmas Eve) on its mount.
To an extent a naïve Georgian-era ‘Lowry’ – this little scene has appeared at least twice in important works detailing the history of furnishings and interiors.
It took £4500 at Dreweatts, Berkshire on November 24.
Christmas Eve, £4500 (Dreweatts Auctions).
