Aldin, Cecil. "Snowed Up On Christmas Eve"

Cecil Aldin.  “Snowed Up On Christmas Eve.” 

London, twentieth century.  14 1/4 x 19 3/4.  Chromolithograph.  Very good condition. 

British sporting art became widely popular in the early nineteenth century, and this popularity has continued until today.  Prints of the British gentry, dressed in bright sporting costume in the field or at a social event, have been produced and enjoyed as much as any other kind of print subject.  The mid-nineteenth century was the brightest period in the history of these wonderful sporting images, but the later period, from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century, had a star of considerable luminance.  Cecil Aldin (1870-1935) was one of the most popular and successful of all British sporting artists.   Much of Aldin’s work consists of illustrations for sporting books and periodicals, but he is probably best known for his large chromolithographs of hunts, coaching and races.  These began with his four famous series, Fallowfield Hunt, Bluemarket Races, Harefield Harriers, and Cottesbrook Hunt, issued around the turn of the century, and continued through many other delightful groups and individual prints.  Aldin’s renown is based on his charming compositions, with bright coloring and top-flight production, exhibiting his delightful sense of humor in scenes with an evocative Dickensian setting.  This print shows a coach arriving at an inn on a snowy Christmas ever.  It is a typical and delightful example of his work.