''The Shortening Winter's Day is Near a Close'' (1903) and its replicas -- ''The Shortening Winter's Day is Near a Close'' (circa 1903) and ''Beneath'' ''the Snow Encumbered Branches'' (name attached in 2008) -- are oil on canvas paintings by Scottish painter
Joseph Farquharson
Joseph Farquharson (4 May 1846 – 15 April 1935) was a Scottish painter, chiefly of landscapes in Scotland often including animals. He is most famous for his snowy winter landscapes, often featuring sheep and often depicting dawn or dusk. He ...
. The iconic artworks depict a shepherd tending sheep with the evening sun shining through snowy trees.
The primary, and largest (117 x 171 cm), version of the composition ''The Shortening Winter's Day is Near a Close'' (Accession Number LL3152), is at the
Lady Lever Art Gallery
The Lady Lever Art Gallery is a museum founded and built by the industrialist and philanthropist William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme and opened in 1922. The Lady Lever Art Gallery is set in the garden village of Port Sunlight, on the Wirral ...
, in
Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight is a model village and suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside. It is located between Lower Bebington and New Ferry, on the Wirral Peninsula. Port Sunlight was built by Lever Brothers to accommodate workers in it ...
, England.
The 82 x 120 cm version of ''The Shortening Winter's Day is Near a Close'' was last sold to a private collector in 2013.
The 51 x 76 cm version was last sold to a private collector in 2016 under the name ''Beneath the Snow Encumbered Branches''.
The image has become well known through the use of its likeness on popular
Hallmark
A hallmark is an official mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals—such as platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium. In a more general sense, the term ''hallmark'' can al ...
Christmas cards for over 30 years.
Background
Painter and
Laird
Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in ...
Farquharson owned a estate at Finzean, Royal Deeside,
Aberdeenshire
Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland.
It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...
, where he enjoyed painting wintery scenes, particularly of sheep. This in turn had led to his nickname of "Frozen Mutton Farquharson".
Farquharson's considerable commercial success was based on the snow scenes he exhibited almost annually at the
Royal Academy of Arts
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...
from 1894 until 1925, and celebrated printsellers Frost & Reed assured him a steady income by selling deluxe editions of his works. This subject is one of his most celebrated, and the primary version (now in the Lady Lever Art Gallery) was shown at the RA in 1903. Farquharson was known to create several versions of his best works, either to sell as replicas or to retain as ''aides memoires''. Often artists painted replicas for engravers to work from when the original painting was not available and it is possible that one of these replicas served such a purpose; a highly popular print of ''The Shortening Winter's Day is near a Close'' sold in the many thousands by Farquharson's publisher Frost & Reed.
History
The primary version of ''The Shortening Winter's Day is near a Close'' (Lady Lever Art Gallery) was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1903.
It is not known when the 82 x 120 cm replica was painted but it is probable that it was soon after the exhibition of 1903 and likely to have been painted to satisfy a patron that had been disappointed not to be able to purchase the exhibited painting that Lever had secured when it was on the walls of the Academy.
The 82 x 120 cm version under the name ''The Shortening Winter's Day is near a Close'' was auctioned in 2008 by
Sotheby's
Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...
and again by
Bonhams
Bonhams is a privately owned international auction house and one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. It was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. This brought to ...
in 2013. In 2013 it fetched £157,250 (US$200,599)
The 51 x 76 cm version was with the Richard Green Gallery in 1972 and reproduced in ''Country Life'' on 1 June that year. The 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
Hallmark Cards, Inc. is a private, family-owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce Hall, Hallmark is the oldest and largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was award ...
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 51 x 76 cm version had been sold in the 1960s to a private Scottish collector for £1,450.
When this version went to auction in 2008 it was listed with the title ''Beneath the Snow Encumbered Branches'' by
Lyon & Turnbull
Lyon & Turnbull is a privately owned international auction house based in Scotland. It is Scotland's oldest auction house founded in 1826. It is the largest independent auction house in the United Kingdom outside of London and one of the fast ...
auctioneers with the note "A painting of this title was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1901". There was some public interest in the piece at this time with the "Christmas card painting" resurfacing.
Sold at Lyon & Turnbull auctioneers in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, it was estimated that it would sell for between £50,000 and £70,000,
but sold for more than twice that estimate to another private collector in Scotland.
The painting was auctioned again by Lyon & Turnbull on 9 June 2016 for £146,500 (US$186,800).
In December 2009,
Gyles Brandreth
Gyles Daubeney Brandreth (born 8 March 1948) is an English broadcaster, writer and former politician. He has worked as a television presenter, theatre producer, journalist, author and publisher.
He was a presenter for TV-am's '' Good Morning ...
presented a piece on the history of the painting for
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
's ''
The One Show
''The One Show'' is a British television magazine and chat show programme. Broadcast live on BBC One weeknights at 7:00 pm, it features topical stories and studio guests. It is currently co-hosted by Alex Jones, Jermaine Jenas, and Ronan K ...
''.
Aesthetics
The painting, like Farquharson's other landscapes, was painted on his estate at
Finzean
Finzean (; gd, Fìnnean) is a rural community, electoral polling district, community council area and former ecclesiastical parish, which forms the southern part of the Parish of Birse, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Finzean was the subject of many we ...
, Royal Deeside. One of his descendants,
Sir Angus Farquharson of Finzean
Sir Angus Dune Miller Farquharson of Finzean (27 March 1935 – 10 January 2018) was Lord Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire from 1998 to 2010.
Career
He was commissioned as a Deputy Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire in 1984 and as Vice Lord-Lieutenant i ...
, later said that he thought he had found the exact spot at Finzean where the painting was created.
[
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.
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shortening Winter's Day Is Near A Close
1901 in Scotland
1901 paintings
Aberdeenshire
Agriculture in Scotland
Sheep in art
Winter in the United Kingdom
Landscape paintings
Scottish paintings
Christmas traditions
Christmas art