Joan Ferràndiz i Castells ( Barcelona 1919-1997 ) studied at the Barcelona School of Fine Arts and wrote and illustrated many children's books. Since 1952 he has been internationally recognized as the author of a type of Christmas carol with stylized, smiling and good-natured shepherds or angels, which has been widely imitated.
His drawings illustrated the program of the Pau Casals de Acapulco Festival in Acapulco in 1960, published on the occasion of the first world audition of El Pesebre.
The invention of Christmas cards is usually attributed to Sir Henry Cole, director of the prestigious Victoria and Albert Museum in London, who, in 1843, commissioned the painter John Calcott Horsley, a master lithographer, to draw and paint a Christmas scene, adding a few words with wishes of happiness. Under the image was printed the phrase: "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year To You." Other sources attribute the invention to Thomas Shorrock, from Leith (Scotland), who in the 1840s designed some cards with a funny character about the legend "A Guide new year tae ye." Twenty years later, the media support of the Queen Victoria and the great success of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. In these first cards, religious scenes alternated with snowy landscapes, flowers, fairies and fun and sentimental images of children and animals. (Source Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library)
We pay tribute on Christmas night to Juan Ferrandiz who dedicated his talent and sensitivity to drawing and illustrating endearing and wonderful Christmas scenes that bring back to us the most genuine fantasy and magic of these dates. Ferrandiz's Christmas cards are an emblem of Christmas, and we remember with nostalgia this great illustrator, who has left us a truly wonderful legacy.
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