Happy holidays from the Hammer Museum! Over the next two weeks, we will be sharing holiday-themed artworks for the #HammerHolidays.
Artist Ernest Fierce, hails from Woodstock, New York. His lithograph Winter Morning is most likely a depiction of a New York Christmas rather than a Los Angeles Christmas. In L.A., temperatures rarely drop low enough for it to snow. When it is 60 degrees, it is officially cold in L.A. 50 degree weather merits heavy jackets. And in 40 degree weather, many Native Angelenos don’t even bother going outside.
Did you know it used to occasionally snow in L.A.? During a legendary snowstorm on January 10, 1949, it snowed for three full nights. Temperatures dropped from the lower 30s to the upper 20s. For a few days, children and adults traded their surfboards to play in the snow and live out their winter wonderland dreams. Do you think L.A. looked like this during those few days in 1949? Maybe with snow-covered palm trees?
Ernest Fiene, Winter Morning, 1937. Lithograph. Image: 8 1/4 x 12 5/16 in. (21 x 31.3 cm) Sheet: 11 7/8 x 16 in. (30.2 x 40.6 cm). Collection UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, Hammer Museum.
