Christmas Card Original Artwork

Of the numerous Christmas themed images Edward Gorey produced during his half century career as an illustrator, possibly the most notable set of holiday drawings are the images Gorey created for George Bixby's Albodocani Press.

Beginning in 1975 with Gertrude Stein Decorates a Dog for Christmas, Edward Gorey created a total of ten Christmas card images for Mr. Bixby.

Fruitcake, the final image from the series was created in 1990 and is arguably Edward Gorey's most famous Christmas card design (see my post from December 12, 2024 https://goreyana.blogspot.com/2024/12/fruitcake.html).

I recently acquired the original artwork for L'Etoile en Orient, Edward Gorey's Albodoncani Press Christmas Card from 1988. This drawing is one of the stranger Christmas images from the series. Two lizards in formal dress stand on a terrace raising their glasses in a celebration while viewing the biblical Star of the East shooting across the night sky.

Meticulously executed in pen and ink, the sky itself was filled in with thousands of short vertical pen strokes resulting in a velvety surface on the art itself as the pen nib lightly scratched the surface of the paper depositing the ink. When printed, the sky is not a flat black but has flecks of white throughout, lending depth to the image.  

The lizard couple are unusual characters, even for Edward Gorey. Gorey always had a particular fondness for frogs, but in mid 1980's anthropomorphic lizards began to slyly make somewhat regular appearances in his illustration works. Just as they had insinuated themselves into his drawings, they slithered away by the early 1990's.