Year 1901 (1901) Location Private collection Created 1901 | Medium Oil on canvas Artist Joseph Farquharson | |
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Dimensions 51 cm × 79 cm (20 in × 31 in) | ||
The Shortening Winter's Day Is Near a Close (sometimes known as Beneath the Snow Encumbered Branches) is a 1901 oil on canvas work by Scottish painter Joseph Farquharson. Its whereabouts were unknown between it going on public display in 1901 and the 1960s, when it was bought by a private collector. It reappeared on public display again in 2008, when it was sold at auction, selling for over twice its initial estimate to private hands in Scotland. It is currently held at Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool, England (Accession Number LL3152) with the title: The Shortening Winter's Day Is Near a Close. It has become well known, as its likeness is used on a popular Hallmark Christmas card.
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Background
Painter and Laird Joseph Farquharson owned a 20,000-acre (8,100 ha) estate at Finzean, Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, where he enjoyed painting wintery scenes, particularly of sheep. This in turn had led to his nickname of "Frozen Mutton Farquharson". He had a painting hut built on wheels, which contained a stove to keep him from getting too cold whilst he was out painting.
Speaking in 2008 before the painting went on sale at auction, Nick Carnow, director at auctioneers Lyon and Turnbull of Edinburgh, said, "Farquharson had a long career but paintings by him of this quality are rare."
History
The painting went on display in 1901 at the Royal Academy. Between then and the 1960s, nothing is known of its location except that it eventually came into the hands of art dealer Richard Green of Bond Street, where it was sold to a private Scottish collector for £1,450.
Card company WN Sharpe purchased the rights to use the painting in greetings cards in the 1970s. The company later was acquired by the Hallmark Cards company, which continues to own these rights. In 2008, Hallmark's Jo Marchbank said, "This painting is one of our most popular Christmas cards. It is probably something to do with the unique atmosphere Farquharson creates, the dramatic yet subtle depiction of a winter landscape." Over the course of its use as a design on Christmas cards, it is thought to have been reproduced hundreds of thousands of times.
The painting was resold at auction in 2008, having hung in its owner's sitting room since she originally purchased it in the 1960s. She had decided to sell it because she was moving into smaller living quarters and did not feel that there would be enough room to adequately display the piece. Sold at Lyon and Turnbull auctioneers in Edinburgh, it was estimated that it would sell for between £50,000 to £70,000, but sold for more than twice that estimate to another private collector in Scotland for £147,600.
In December 2009, Gyles Brandreth presented a piece on the history of the painting for BBC One’s The One Show.
Aesthetics
The painting, like Farquharson’s other landscapes, was painted on his estate at Finzean, Royal Deeside. One of his descendants, Angus Farquharson, later said that he thought he had found the exact spot at Finzean where the painting was created. The painting itself is an oil on canvas work, measuring 20 inches (51 cm) high and 31 inches (79 cm) wide.
The shepherd in the painting was actually an employee of Farquharson whom he had asked to pose for the image. Whilst he was painting he noticed that the model was beginning to turn blue and so offered the man the chance to come inside his painting hut to warm up; the man declined so that Farquharson could finish the painting more quickly.