Collection: Christmas & Winter Prints

Vintage Christmas prints that outlast the season

Most Christmas decorations go back in the box in January. A winter print doesn't have to. A snowy temple courtyard or a heron standing in the snow works on a wall from the first frost to the end of February, and still looks right in July. That is the idea behind this collection: winter wall art with a festive mood, chosen from the great snow scenes of art history rather than from seasonal clip art.

Japanese snow scenes: Hasui, Hiroshige, Hokusai

In Japan, watching the snow fall has its own word, yukimi, and woodblock artists made it one of their favourite subjects. Kawase Hasui, the master of shin-hanga, is the great painter of snow: his Zōjōji Temple in Shiba (1925), a lone figure under an umbrella in front of the red gate, is one of the best-loved Japanese prints of the twentieth century, and his very last design, the Golden Hall of Chūson-ji at Hiraizumi, is a snow scene too.

A century earlier, Utagawa Hiroshige drew Night Snow at Kambara for his Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō, and the foxfires of Ōji, where according to legend the foxes of the Kantō region gathered on New Year's Eve under an old enoki tree. Hokusai's Sumida River in the snow and Hiroshi Yoshida's Snow in Kashiwabara complete the set. Explore all our Japanese woodblock prints.

Birds in the snow: Ohara Koson

Ohara Koson brought the same silence to his bird-and-flower prints: egrets huddled in falling snow, a crow on a white branch, a heron waiting on a frozen bank. A few lines and a lot of empty paper. They are the quietest pieces in the collection and the easiest to hang in a bedroom or a narrow hallway. John James Audubon's Snowy Owl adds a touch of natural history to a winter gallery wall.

Winter fairy tales: Edmund Dulac's Snow Queen

For a warmer, storybook Christmas, Edmund Dulac illustrated Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen in 1911: the Queen and her polar bears, a village buried under snow, all deep blues and silver. These prints suit a child's room as well as a living room, and pair nicely with our vintage Christmas street scene of children and toys.

A Christmas gift that is easy to frame

Every print is reproduced from a high-definition scan, restored, and printed on thick matte archival paper, in sizes designed for standard off-the-shelf frames. Free shipping, no minimum order. Shipped rolled in a sturdy tube. Each print is made to order: order early in December to leave time for framing.

FAQ

Are these prints only for Christmas?

No. Most of them are winter landscapes rather than Christmas imagery, so they can stay on the wall all winter, or all year round.

Which winter print should I choose for a living room?

For a large wall, a Hasui snow scene in 50×70 cm makes a strong focal point. For a gallery wall, mix two or three of Koson's birds in the snow with one Hiroshige landscape.

Are these original Japanese woodblock prints?

No. They are museum-quality reproductions, not hand-printed woodblock impressions. Originals are sold by specialist galleries and auction houses.