Merry Old Santa Claus
1881 · Wood engraving (first published in Harper's Weekly, 1 January 1881) · Getty Research Institute
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
- Thomas Nast (1840–1902)
- Year
- 1881
- Medium
- Wood engraving (first published in Harper's Weekly, 1 January 1881)
- Collection
- Getty Research Institute (Thomas Nast's Christmas Drawings for the Human Race, 1890)
- Movement
- Golden Age of Illustration
- Series
- Thomas Nast's Christmas Drawings for the Human Race
Santa Claus stands with his arms full of toys, a sprig of holly in his fur cap and a long clay pipe trailing smoke. He holds a doll in a white smock, a toy sword, a drum on a strap, a picture book and a toy horse, with a pocket watch hanging at his belt. The whole figure is built from fine black lines, with cross-hatching for the fur and shadows. Thomas Nast, the staff artist of Harper's Weekly, drew Santa Claus for the paper almost every Christmas from 1863. This version, round, white-bearded and twinkling, fixed the figure most Americans still picture. It was first printed as a wood engraving in Harper's Weekly on 1 January 1881. Harper & Brothers reprinted it in 1890 in Thomas Nast's Christmas Drawings for the Human Race, the book this print is taken from.
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
Santa Claus with an armful of toys, drawn in black line on warm cream paper. For the holiday season it belongs above the mantel or in the entryway, beside Audubon's Wild Turkey; a black frame keeps the engraved line crisp.
Size, framing & materials
- Style
- Golden Age of Illustration painting
- Era
- 19th century (1881)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- classic
- Rooms
- hallway or entryway, living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. Prints at 12×18, 16×24 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway. 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
