Study for Louis Prang Christmas Card design

This prize-winning design for a Christmas card by Vedder reveals his involvement with the American Aesthetic Movement. The decorative work of the multitalented Rome-based expatriate dates to his 1879-80 and 1881-83 stays in New York, a time when many artists were embracing more commercial pursuits. Producing magazine covers, book illustrations, and bookplates, Vedder also experimented with innovative designs for stained glass, painted tiles, and bronze firebacks. His first Aesthetic endeavor was this study for an entry to Louis Prang’s second annual Christmas Card Competition. Vedder received the $1000 first prize from a jury of Aesthetic peers—John La Farge, Samuel Colman, and Stanford White (stepping in for Louis Comfort Tiffany)—and elicited critical praise for the design on its exhibition, with other contest submissions, at the American Art Gallery, on Madison Square. As one noted: "It is easy to see that art is advancing in our country, when Elihu Vedder makes our Christmas cards." The final version embodied the collaborative impulse that would characterize the artist’s other decorative ventures: the figure was paired with the first line of a poem by his friend and fellow Aesthetic enthusiast Celia Thaxter, with whom he shared the prize money.