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Christmas Greetings by Modern British Artists

[ Exhibition )

A drawing of a Christmas pudding resting on a plate with

Emily Sutton, Christmas Card, 2011, Linocut on paper, On Loan from a Private Collection © Emily Sutton

Get in the festive spirit with our collection of artist-designed Christmas cards.

Discover the personal and playful cards made by Edward Bawden, Ben Nicholson, Enid Marx and more.

Did you know that Christmas cards are a British invention? The first Christmas card is believed to have been commissioned in 1843 by Henry Cole, founding director of the V&A. He and his friend, the artist John Horsley, designed the first Christmas card as a way of encouraging ordinary people to use the newly-formed postal service to keep in touch with friends and family.

This festive Print Room display featured over 100 original Christmas cards dating from the 1950s to the present day. It included cards made by celebrated British artists including Edward Bawden, Glenn Brown, Barnett Freedman, Nigel Henderson, Enid Marx, Ben Nicholson, and Glyn Philpot.

Download large print labels

 

Exhibition highlights

A drawing of a Christmas pudding resting on a plate with
A letterbox shaped card with abstract ink and coloured pencil drawing.
An animal, possibly a sheep, sits next to a wreath at the bottom of a pile of presents. They are all coloured teal, while the background is bright yellow
A christmas card with an abstracted repeating design similar to the nib of an ink pen drawn in dark ink of a mustard yellow background. At the top are the words
A drawing of an open book on a pale blue background dotted with white spots reminiscent of falling snow, with the following on the left hand page:
A letterbox shaped card with a diamond patterned background inlilac and blue. A rounded rectangular central panel depicts a crowded Christmas party in a mid-century living room. This is flanked on the left by a sheath of papers with writing on them except the top sheet, which has a drawing of a rose. To the right is a pile of books with a twig resting on the top.
Illustration of a small bird perched on a branch sprouting with red berries.
A long thin card with three cream coloured shapes against a red background. A thin straight line bisects all three vertically, as do two other curved lines.
A predominately slate grey card with four coloured rectangles and squares towards the right side in green, red, blue and white. The white square contains a simple line drawing of a wine glass and champagne glass, with a white arrow from the right side of card pointing at it. On the left is the typed phrase
A letterbox shaped card with an abstract design made from collaged and torn pieces of coloured paper in predominant tones of red and pink.
A black square with a red line, green square and a spiral pattern drawn free-hand. At the bottom written in teal colured ink against a cream background is
A collaged Christmas card with a drawing of a young boy sharpening a razor blade standing on a stool next to an angry looking Father Christmas, who is tied to a chair. At the top of the card a stuck in piece of paper says
Black and white engraving showing a lion cub playing with the head of Santa while an older lion rears over it.

Our current exhibitions

A landscape painting of a valley with a number of farm buildings with trees either side. In the foreground are two walking figures in white.

Dora Carrington: Beyond Bloomsbury

[ Exhibition )

More info & tickets >
Photograph of a coloured mesh cloud installation with a woman left looking up at it. She has shoulder length curly brown hair and wears all black.

Rana Begum: No.1367 Mesh

[ Exhibition )

More info & tickets >
Abstract landscape of gold and black paint

Maggi Hambling: Nightingale night

[ Exhibition )

More info & tickets >

Want to know more?

If you’re conducting research into these artists or another aspect of Modern British art and would like to use our library and archive, please contact Sarah Norris, Collections Manager on s.norris@pallant.org.uk.

A restaurant with Robin Day designed wooden chairs and red banquettes with glass panelled doors looking out onto a paved courtyard.

Eat and drink
Photograph shopwing the interior of a bookshop with white shelves packed full of art books. A man in the background reaches for a book on a shelf.

Shop
Photograph showing a man and woman sitting in a studio looking at a print out of a picture together

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