"Christmas Time" by Emily Mary Osborn, 1828-1925

Christmas Time

Emily Mary Osborn, 1828-1925

Exhibited 1865 Royal Academy

Oil on canvas

Source: Illustrated London News (15 July 1865): 37

Article accompanying the illustration: “It is not easy to realise in imagination, while we are rejoicing in the very heyday of summer, all the joys and associations which make “Christmas time” dear to us; though we may, especially those of us who have warm, young blood still dancing in our veins, when sweltering in the sun, or sinking in the languor of summer, long for the bracing winter breezes and the almost fierce delights of muscular Cliristianity in a stiff January north-easter.” [continued below]

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It is, however, to the contemplation of other and gentler pleasures of winter that we are invited by the admirable picture by afiss Osborne we have engraved from the Royal Academy exhibition — a picture, by-the-way, which in technical qualities, and particularly in its rich and harmonious colouring, is in advance of some recent paintings by this accomplished artist. The subject is essentially feminine in conception, showing, as it does, not only how feminine hands deck our homes at the great Christian festival, but, as it seems to us, suggesting also how to the presence of women we owe the charms and endearments of the winter fireside — love and beauty and innocence, weaving a triple spell round the hearth: the love of maternity, the beauty of maidenhood, and the innocence of childhood. The ancient interior, with its oak panelling and quaint fireplaces, and until a portrait of some armed ancestor, as well as the decking of the knightly casque, tell us that the family before us is of ancient race; and this intimation adds interest to the picture by naturally inducing the spectator to propound questions to himself — questions which might be very pathetic in their nature were there anything to justify the belief that the preparations we see making are not for the father and the sons of the family, expected to return at Christmas — the one from public duties, perhaps; the others from college. We cannot affirm that the artist intended to indicate more than this, or that the meaning she wished to convey was other than that at which we have already hinted; but the render is, of course, at liberty to draw other inferences, and there are many romantic stories which might be readily adjusted to this pleasing picture of Christmas time. We have only to add that Miss Osborne has appended to the title of her picture in the Academy catalogue the following line from the old ballad of “The Mistletoe Bough evidently, however, without, in the picture, pointing to the catastrophe of that ballad —

The holly-branch shone on the old oak wall.

Last modified 29 December 2015