At the Christmas Persephone Day in Bath, this writer of the Post gave a talk on 'The Persephone Post Advent Calendar 2025' with "twenty-four favourite domestic, joyful, beautiful, seasonal subjects". So from now until the 24th, we shall have a selection of the "windows" from this virtual calendar. We begin with Ready for Christmas (1995, Warrington Museum & Art Gallery by Eric Tucker (1932-2018), the subject of Eric Tucker: The Secret Painter by Joe Tucker, his nephew, which was published earlier this year and comes highly recommended.

Anna Ancher's mastery of painting light also includes soft lamplight as evidenced by Helga Reading in the Drawing Room (c1908, Skagens Museum). The room is still there with the sofa and the lamp in the Michael & Anna Anchers Hus; all the interiors are as they were when the artists were living there. Their daughter Helga (1893-1964) bequeathed Anchers Hus the family home and the art collection to a foundation with her name and it opened to the public in 1967. The exhibition at Dulwich is long-overdue but very welcome. 

Anna Ancher painted mostly indoor scenes, and if you visit Skagen a visit to the Anchers Hus where she lived with her artist husband, Michael, and daughter, Helga, is highly recommended. The house, part of the excellent Skagens Museum, also contains her studio. But occasionally she painted en plein air and captured the soft, glowing light so specific to this "remote corner" of Denmark. This is Harvest Time (c1901, Fuglsangkuntsmuseum).

Anna Ancher was the only member of late C19 group of Skagen Painters who actually came from and grew up Skagen, on the northern tip of Denmark. Her parents owned Brøndums Hotel which was the usual meeting place of the artists, and a subject she painted several times. In Brøndums Annexe (1917), a simple but captivating image, she conveys the play and warmth of the remarkable Skagen light which drew the artists in the first place. (You can read a lovely recent account of staying in the hotel).

As we move towards the day with the least daylight, the luminous paintings of Anna Ancher (1859-1935) provide a lovely corrective, so we shall have five on the Post this week. The first-ever UK exhibition of this Danish painter is now open at Dulwich Picture Gallery (until 8th March 2026), and it includes The Maid in the Kitchen (1883-86) of which Laura Cumming writes, "Yellow-gold light dances through a fine muslin curtain across the window, illuminating the surfaces, glowing against walls, pooling on the wooden floor".

Frances Spalding (b 1950) is the art historian biographer of several important Bloomsbury figures whose lives and work are closely interwoven with Persephone Books. Her subjects include Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Roger Fry, and Gwen Raverat who provided the delightful illustrations for The Runaway. She has also written a biography of John Minton who captured the essence of Elizabeth David's writing in his 1950s book covers and illustrations.