Can one work of art be in multiple museums? Yes.
The 1919 woodcut print (below), generically titled Children Standing Around Christmas Tree, is in the collections of both the Victoria and Albert and Museum of Fine Art Houston.
Fourteen-year-old Steffi Krauss carved this image in wood, then inked and printed it on paper to make prints of about 40×30 centimeters (about 16×12 inches).
Steffi was a student in Franz Cizek's in 1914, at a time when children's art education was being transformed at the Vienna's Kunstgewerbeschule, or School of Arts & Crafts.
The print depicts children by a candle-lit Christmas tree. Below it is a crèche with Mary's and Joseph's garments adorned by crucifixes. One child holds one of two harlequin dolls.
The print combines multiple seasonal ideas, including the celebration of light in winter, Christianity, childhood joy and wonder, and—perhaps—symbols of mockery or doubt.
#art #design #print #woodcut #Christmas #VictoriaAndAlbert #MFAHouston #religion
