Nov 23, 2021 · Learn how the familiar image of Santa Claus came to be, through the work of German-American illustrator Thomas Nast. Santa Claus represents one of the Christmas season’s most iconic images.

Dec 19, 2018 · Cartoonist Thomas Nast first drew Santa Claus in January 1863, for Harper's Weekly. Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1929, via Metropolitan Museum of Art under CC 1.0. You could call it the face...

He created a modern version of Santa Claus (based on the traditional German figures of Saint Nicholas and Weihnachtsmann) and the political symbol of the elephant for the Republican Party (GOP).

Nast’s oldest child Julia was four, so his mind was focused on gifts for her. In small letters at the top of the central circular enclosure, “Santaclaussville, N.P.” encompassed the farmyard, stables and household pets, as well as his sleigh and reindeer on Christmas Eve.

Thomas Nast, American cartoonist, best known for his attack on the political machine of William M. Tweed in New York City in the 1870s. From Nast’s pen came the Republican Party’s elephant, Tammany Hall’s tiger, and one of the most popular images of Santa Claus.

Thomas Nast “invented” the image popularly recognized as Santa Claus. Nast first drew Santa Claus for the 1862 Christmas season Harper’s Weekly cover and center-fold illustration to memorialize the family sacrifices of the Union during the early and, for …

Of all the symbols Nast created, popularized or inspired, Santa Claus is the most endearing, and probably will be the most enduring, as an irresistible holiday image — for both hearts and pocketbooks. The merry old Santa who appears in countless newspapers on Christmas Eve or Day every year, mirrors the artist’s features.

Dec 6, 2024 · Thomas Nast, Santa Claus in Camp (from Harper’s Weekly), January 1863, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA. The statement his January 1863 cartoon(s) made was big. He is suggesting that Santa is from the Union, and making it a Union holiday.

Dec 7, 2022 · But another of the most enduring parts of his legacy as an illustrator comes in the form of the figure who is most associated with Christmas: Santa Claus. Nast first drew him for the January...

This was the moment that Nast conceived and introduced our modern image of Santa Claus. Combining European traditions of St. Nicholas with folk images of elves from his native Germany, he created the jolly gift-giver now associated with Christmas that …