THOMAS NAST SANTA CLAUS ILLUSTRATIONS

This illustration from Harper's Magazine from 1881 is the most famous Thomas Nast Santa Claus and the most reproduced.





1871 HARPER'S MAGAZINE







1874 HARPER'S MAGAZINE







1876 HARPER'S MAGAZINE







1979 HARPER'S MAGAZINE







1881 HARPER'S MAGAZINE

NAST CHRISTMAS CARTOONS

1863 HARPER'S MAGAZINE SOLDIER'S FURLOUGH







1860'S ILLUSTRATION NO FURLOUGH







1870 HARPER'S MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION







HARPER'S MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION JANUARY 1876







HARPER'S MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION DECEMBER 1876







HARPER'S MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION JANUARY 1879







HARPER'S ILLUSTRATION DECEMBER 1886

THOMAS NAST FAMOUS AMERICAN ILLUSTRATOR

Thomas Nast was a German immigrant to America. He started to work for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper at a young age. In 1855 photographs could not be inserted into printed material so woodcuts, which were taken from pen and ink illustrations, were needed. At first Nast just illustrated stories, but soon he started creating political cartoons. Nast created the elephant and the donkey as symbols of the Republican and Democratic parties. Nast also helped bring down a corrupt New York City government. But Nast also drew yearly Christmas illustrations for Frank Leslie’s and other papers. These drawings are less well known than his Boss Tweed illustrations. But Nast deserves some credit for our modern interpretation of Santa Claus.



Nast was the first artist to illustrate The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore. After he worked on that poem his Santa resembled the man in the poem. Since the poem and the artwork were so influential they became our modern interpretation of Santa Claus: a chubby, jolly man with a fur cap and flowing white hair. He delivers toys on Christmas Eve with the help of 8 flying reindeer.

I will be posting several Thomas Nast Christmas Cartoons over the next few posts.