Robin Tanner

This etching, Christmas by Robin Tanner, was originally created in 1929. The study was made at Castle Combe, a village in Wiltshire, England, one moonlight night. In his autobiography, Tanner describes their midnight excursion: He worked surrounded by the snores of sleeping villagers, hearing every creak of their bedsprings, ‘it was an eerie feeling, working through the small hours in that empty village where the moonlight lay in sheets of silver so bright and constant, that we drew as easily as by the day.'”

Over forty years after he etched plates, Tanner’s prints continued to be published. This image included 100 lifetime and 122 posthumous proofs published by Garton & Co., and may have been used as a Christmas card like other works by Tanner. This exceptional etching celebrates the early 20th century British pastoral tradition.