"You made this ancient stone bridge an artistic monument that I must
revisit. When I issued
Cobblestone Bridge some years ago, this celebration
of life in the Hampshire region of England quickly became the best loved of
all my village scenes.
As I considered subjects for a Christmas painting this year, my thoughts
turned to the familiar charms of southwestern England, and I decided to
return to the scene of my former inspiration. Not, this time, on a ramble
with Nanette through snowy English fields, but simply through the powers of
mind and imagination. I know this stately old bridge well enough to conjure
it and its environs when it wears a mantle of white and bears the wreaths
of Christmas.
Cobblestone Christmas features a bridge spanning a free-flowing brook, a
church, a comfortable inn — all constructed with flat stones that abound in
the fields. The thatched roofs, built up from bundles of reeds, are crowned
with snow; many are also framed by strings of twinkling lights.
Light spills from the windows of every home and suffuses into the crisp
winter air, where it mingles with the incandescent fires of the setting
sun. God and man have truly collaborated in a celebration of the season."
