Watercolor Greeting Card

Posted on January 07, 2012 by Admin
Watercolor Greeting Card

Watercolor Greeting Card

Christmas cards were created by John Calcott Horsley as a favor to his friend, Henry Cole, never expecting that it would become a staple of the holiday season.

John Calcott Horsely

John Calcott Horsely was born in London England in 1817. He was a nephew of the landscape painter Augustus Wall Callicott . Horsley was married twice, first to Elvira Walter and second to Rosamund Haden. He was a painter of historical genre subjects having been influenced by the painters of the Dutch seventeenth century. In the 1860's, along with F. D. Hardy, Thomas Webster, and G. B. O'Neill, he formed the Cranbrook Colony in Kent, England.

The First Christmas Cards

When John Calcott Horsely, an artist, invented the first Christmas card in 1843, and friend Henry Cole, had no idea of the impact that it would have in Britain and eventually around the world. Cole, finding himself too busy to write to his friends during the holiday season. One thousand cards were produced with the left overs being sold off by the printer. The first design showed a happy family raising a festive glass as a toast to the recipient. They were printed in black and white and then colored by hand.

Originally, the cards were expected to be vogue that would soon pass but by 1880, it had become an important part of the holiday season. Artists, writers, printers, and engravers found opportunities in the rapidly growing production of the cards.