Merry Christmas - and what does your home look like?

Merry Christmas to all my regular readers - may your Christmas be peaceful and happy wherever you are.

The Christmas Hamper by Robert Braithwaite Martineau

How does the festive season look like in your home?

Here's a Christmas taster from the Tate described as being paintings of family festivities. However I'm absolutely certain the person who picked them forgot to read the explanations behind them.  It's rather ironic!

Meanwhile I hope your turkey roasts perfectly and your Christmas hampers feed you well this Christmas Day. Don't overdo the chocolates!

The paintings are:

• A Jan Steen Kitchen (1995-6) by Jonathan Leaman, Oil on canvas View the main page for this artwork
• Sunday (1985-9) by John Lessore, Oil on canvas View the main page for this artwork
• The Last Day in the Old Home (1862) by Robert Braithwaite Martineau, Oil on canvas View the main page for this artwork - this is the most famous of his works. It's a social moralist scene - very popular in the nineteenth century.  The painting portrays the family of irresponsible behaviour of a feckless spendthrift - just prior to having to leave their home.  A fact I didn't know is that Martineau modeled for the genetleman in Ford Madox Ford's painting 'Work'
• Past and Present, No. 1 (1858) by Augustus Leopold Egg, Oil on canvas View the main page for this artwork - another moralising picture
• Home Again (1856) by James Collinson, Oil on canvas View the main page for this artwork - a soldier returns from the Crimean War - but all is not what it seems
• Dinner on the Hotel Lawn (1956-7) by Sir Stanley Spencer, Oil on canvas View the main page for this artwork
• Interior, Hammersmith (1946) by Julian Trevelyan, Oil on canvas View the main page for this artwork
• After Lunch (1975) by Patrick Caulfield, Acrylic on canvas View the main page for this artwork
• After Dinner (1827) by Joseph Mallord William Turner, Gouache and watercolour on paper View the main page for this artwork - this looks a bit more like post Christmas lunch - a bit blurry with people who've gone to sleep on the sofa!
• Sleeping Tom (1973) by Julian Trevelyan, Intaglio print on paper View the main page for this artwork
• Uncle John with the Young Folk: 'All Prizes and No Blanks!' engraved by the Dalziel Brothers published 1865 by Arthur Boyd Houghton, Relief print on paperView the main page for this artwork
• Giff Gaff. A Man Asleep on a Bed date not known by George Dance, Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour wash on paper View the main page for this artwork