Christmas Morning: Before Daylight
1871 · Hand-coloured lithograph · Library of Congress, Washington, DC
The whole print, uncropped, on a printed cream mat with its title beneath.
Museum-quality archival paper: heavyweight, acid-free, resists yellowing
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This print
About this work
- Artist
- Kellogg & Bulkeley (lithographic firm, Hartford, Connecticut, from 1867)
- Year
- 1871
- Medium
- Hand-coloured lithograph
- Collection
- Library of Congress, Washington, DC
- Movement
- Victorian
Two small girls lie asleep under a white quilted coverlet, one with her fist curled by her cheek. At the foot of the bed their Christmas presents are piled up: a doll in a red dress and a straw hat, a drum, a toy soldier's head in a blue shako, a white toy donkey, a red parcel, a small blue slipper and sprigs of holly. Gold-patterned paper covers the wall behind them. Kellogg & Bulkeley, a lithographic firm in Hartford, Connecticut, published the hand-coloured print in 1871. It was issued as one of a pair with Christmas Morning: After Daylight, which shows the same girls awake and playing. Prints like these were sold cheaply to decorate family homes. This impression is in the Library of Congress.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
Two sleeping girls and a heap of presents, in cream, red, gold and holly green. Hang it in a child's room or on a landing for the holiday season with its partner, After Daylight, or Koson's Puppy on Fallen Pine Needles, in a dark wood frame.
Size, framing & materials
- Style
- Victorian painting
- Era
- 19th century (1871)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- hallway or entryway, kids room, living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed. See it to scale on your wall →
Framing. The gallery ground is part of the print, so frame it without a mat — dark wood flatters the lighter palette; black sharpens it.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
- Restored in-house from a scan of the original print, cleaned and colour-trued at museum resolution
- Museum-quality archival paper: heavyweight, acid-free, resists yellowing
- Framed option: wood frame in black or dark wood, 12 mm wide and 22 mm deep, with a plexiglass front and no mat; the print is mounted inside and the frame's outside measures the listed size
- Made to order; colours may vary slightly from screen
