Höstflytning

Our special Christmas feature is this remarkably arresting image of a Sámi woman and children, engaged in the Höstflytning, or 'autumn flight', when reindeer herding families in Northern Norway move from coastal pastures to inland mountains and plateaus for winter.

Reindeer are so firmly a part of Christmas iconography—the powerful stuff of childhood dreams—that it is easy to forget that this is a relatively recent construct. This beautiful image predates Rudolph, and the Sámi's head-on gaze seemingly implores us to challenge the easy commodification at thsi time of year of their ancient way of life.

The etching is the work of American portrait artist Loren Holmwood (1892–1985), a member of the Laguna Beach artist colony. In 1936 Holmwood travelled from California to Hammerfest and North Cape in North Norway in search of source material; this etching is undoubtedly a result of this trip. Holmwood worked as an illustrator, including producing drawings for the book 'Whispering Wind, Folktales of the Navaho Indians'. In 1971 he was honoured as Man of the Year by the Greater Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce, for his gift of fifty-two acres along Ward Creek to the Washoe community in Nevada.