Christmas card for 1950.

WAUGH Evelyn (1950)

£4500.00 

Available to view at our Curzon Street shop.

17 x 26cm (card); 29 x 36cm (framed). Hand-made collaged card made from a folded single sheet of thick wove paper, the first page with a high quality monochrome fine art reproduction of Gaetano Zumbo's plague diorama cut out and laid down, hand ruled border in red and black, small red stars in the right hand corners, the left hand side with a vertical text in "art lettering" conveying Christmas greetings for 1950 from the Waugh family, the lower edge with Waugh's fanciful caption "Family Group at Piers Court, Stinchcombe, Glos. Dec 1950."

The literal horror of the extraordinary wax dioramas produced by Gaetano Giulio Zumbo in the late 17th Century was certain to appeal to Waugh's black humour, especially in juxtaposition with, and as metaphor for, the pleasures of family life, especially at this time, shortly after the birth of their seventh child Septimus in July (a delivery which Waugh monitored through the Times from London). The diorama illustrated here, which may be found in Florence's La Specola museum, illustrates the effects of the Plague.

Stock Code: 226259

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