Bringing Home the Christmas Tree

Rockwell Kent

1882–1971

Bringing Home the Christmas Tree, 1928

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: lithograph; wove paper

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 306 x 216 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 405 x 288 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 12 1/16 x 8 1/2 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 15 15/16 x 11 5/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 19 x 14 in

Credit line: Gift of Steven Schmidt, Class of 1958

Accession number: 1995.0005

Not on display

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Label texts

Exhibition Label:
"Trees & Other Ramifications: Branches in Nature & Culture," Mar-2009, Steve Goddard
Although Christmas tree farms existed as early as 1901, Rockwell’s lithograph of 1928 was done before Christmas tree farms became a big industry in the United States. Kent traveled widely but kept a studio in Au Sable Forks in upstate New York, which could well be the setting in this scene. Both the man and the tree are highly stylized-even heroicized-making identification of the tree species impossible. Currently about 35 million Christmas trees are harvested each year in the United States alone and the ecological pros and cons of the tree farming industry are an active area of debate.