Jenny Nyström (Swedish, 1854-1946): Couple under a parasol (via Bukowskis)

Christmas Sheaf  -    ‘Jenny’ Eugenia Nyström

Swedish, 1854 - 1946

Watercolour ,  23.5 x 14.5 cm.

Illustration 'Black Beauty' (Anna Sewell) by swedish artist Jenny Nyström (ca 1890)

Jenny Nyström - Jultomte med grotfat katt (n.d.)

Holiday illustration by Jenny Nyström

Your yearly reminder of what Christmas is really all about: deep-throating gingerbread pigs (Jenny Nyström, 1913)

Jenny Nyström (1854-1946) - ''Rallye de box cars'', aquarelle. - Source Bukowskis.

Don't mind me nerding about christmas traditions and Yule. I know it's not christmas but here we go.

A great way to scarr kids during christmas is to use uncanny masks when dressing up as Santa or dress up as a historical Yule goat :''3 Pick your poison I guess :'3

The Yule goat photo is from a website with historical photos from Swedish museums that has been collected and put in different categories. From what I gather in the photo the peoplare dressing up as different characters connected to the Yule celebration before Santa took the role as a gift bringer. Before we stopped using the Yule goat there was a time when both Santa and the Yule goat was used. Julbock med sällskap tagen vid Bollnässtugan, Skansen. - Nordiska museet / DigitaltMuseum Elso Beskow was a Swedish childbook author who portrayed the tradition of dressing up as the Yule goat in her book Petters och Lottas jul - Petter's and Lotta's christmas. The book follow the two children Petter and Lotta who celebrate christmas with aunt Brown, aunt Green, aunt Lilac and uncle Blue. Uncle Blue dress up as the Yule goat. Doing this he accidently scare Petter and Lotta who hide under the table.

Over here we still have goat symbols during christmas. To this day some people have goats made of hay or wood as decorations.

There is also a lot of artwork where the scandinavian version of Santa use a goat instead of reindeers. The Swedish Jenny Nyström was a famous artist who created a lot of christmas themed artwork with Santa as well as the Yule goat and to this day her art is used for christmas card. Her portrayals has a few elements of red and her drawings had a big influence of how people tend to view old school Santa.

Another artist who made a living out of christmas themed cards was Lars Carlsson and his work can be found today as well.

And then we of course have the famous Gävle goat who is a large hay goat. The goat is heavily guarded and each year there is a new attack to destroy it while people from all around the world hold bets on how long it will stand. My friend had a theory that the goat is meant as a sacrifice to bring a better new year and maybe she is on to do something because horrible things has happened the past years when it survived christmas. Who knows?

Jenny Nyström (Swedish, 1854-1946): Boy with cherries in a cone (1897) (via Uppsala Auktionskammare)

On their way to church, Spenshult Christmas    -    Jenny  Nyström ,1927.

Swedish,  1854 - 1946

Watercolour

A Swedish gårdstomte I drew yesterday. Trying to connect to the style of the late 1800 when artists like Jenny Nyström, Carl Larsson and John Bauer shaped the collective image of our fairytales and myths.

I was inspired to do this when I found two 120 year old original pen and ink fairytale illustrations at the secondhand the other day. A real find! And I even managed to find what books they originally were published in. More about that some other day.

Jenny Nyström (Swedish, 1854–1946).

Holiday Illustration by Jenny Nyström