SNOWMAN COLOURING IN

Print or collect a copy from Braintree Museum Shop or the Town Hall.Colour and decorate as you wish! Drop off your creation and they will be displayed in the

Museum and Town Hall windows to brighten up the town. Best entry will win a prize!Competition closes 31/01/21 and drawn February 2021. The winner will be contacted directly.

Please enter your contact details on the reverse.

HISTORY OF THE SNOWMAN

No one really knows when the first snowman appeared. The earliest known illustration was foundin a Book of Hours in The Hague dated 1380. Snowmen have appeared in art and literature since

the Middle Ages, but their origins could go back much further than that.

Snowmen have endured down the ages and across different cultures. Their construction doesn’tvary much - in Europe and North America snowmen are generally built with three spheres

whereas in East Asia only two spheres are used, one for the head and one for the body. The snowhas to be just right, almost at melting point when it is moist and compact and sticks easily

together. Snowmen are usually decorated with coal or stones for eyes, a carrot for a nose, twigs orbranches for arms, and often a hat and scarf.

By Victorian times the snowman had become a well loved symbol of the winter holiday season butits popularity increased in 1950 when Gene Autry recorded his Christmas hit ‘Frosty the Snowman’.

Frosty’s story was told in books and films and his likeness appeared on decorations and toys. In1978 a book by Raymond Briggs ‘The Snowman’ told the story of a boy who builds a snowman thatcomes to life. An animated film was released in 1982 containing the now iconic song ‘Walking in

the Air’ sung by Aled Jones.

The world’s largest recorded snowman (which was actually a snow woman!) was built in 2008 inMaine, USA and stood 37.21 metres in height (122 feet) beating the previous 1999 record (also in

Maine) by almost three metres.

Today the snowman is as popular as ever. When we do have snow, it is probably one of the firstthings that families rush into the garden to make.

Cyril Hamersma (1919 – 1994) was a localcontemporary artist who used paints,chalks, pencils, ink and other media tocreate works of art to heighten andprovoke awareness of everyday life. Aswell as painting local scenes, he had hisown distinctive abstract style. TheMuseum has a large collection ofHamersma’s works on paper including aset of the snowmen.

The original image, part of a set of five snowmen paintings by Cyril Hamersma

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