Christmas Time, from "Illustrated London News"
Engraver Harvey Orrin Smith British
After William Hemsley British
Not on view
A boy wrapped against the cold carries a basket of holly, a sprig tucked into his hat, and stands in a wintry coastal landscape. Harvey Orrin Smith's wood engraving for the "Illustrated London News" is based on a painting by William Hemsley, a London genre painter and son of an architect who initially followed his father’s profession, then switched gears and taught himself to paint. Regarded by his contemporaries as a "painter of cottage life," Hemsley's small-scale genre subjects often focus on children, a mode established by Frederick Daniel Hardy. These were shown at the Royal Academy, British Institution and Society of British Artists—Hemsley belonged to the latter and served as vice president.