Paper anniversary gifts: 12 masterpieces made on paper
For a first anniversary, give a work that began on paper: Japanese woodblock prints, Dürer’s engravings, Blake’s etched poems and a Carl Larsson watercolour, each as a print to keep.
Paper is the traditional gift for a first anniversary: light, simple, and the start of something you will keep adding to. The most beautiful way to honour it is with art that was made on paper in the first place.
Every work below began life on paper, as a woodblock print, an engraving, an etching or a watercolour. Several are about couples; all of them are worth living with. Each can be ordered as a fine art print on paper, and if you would like a portrait of the two of you instead, Fable makes one from a photo, with a free preview first.
1. Lovers Beneath an Umbrella in the Snow
Suzuki Harunobu 鈴木 春信, Lovers Beneath an Umbrella in the Snow, c. 1767. Color woodblock print; chuban. Art Institute of Chicago.
Suzuki Harunobu invented the full-colour Japanese woodblock print in the 1760s, and this is his most beloved image: two lovers sharing one umbrella in the snow. In Japan, a shared umbrella is a sign of a couple.
The perfect first anniversary picture, especially for a winter wedding.
2. Delaying the announcement of dawn
Suzuki Harunobu 鈴木 春信, Delaying the announcement of dawn, c. 1767/68. Color woodblock print; chuban. Art Institute of Chicago.
Another Harunobu: a young couple who do not want the night to end, one gently covering the water clock to stop the dawn being announced. A whole love poem in one gesture.
For a bedroom, and for couples who are never ready to say goodnight.
3. The Jewel River of Plovers
Suzuki Harunobu 鈴木 春信, The Jewel River of Plovers, c. 1767. Color woodblock print; chuban. Art Institute of Chicago.
Harunobu’s print of the Plover river, one of Japan’s Six Jewel Rivers celebrated in poetry. Figures on the bank pause to watch the birds rise together.
A soft, green and grey print for a hallway or bedroom.
4. Woman Playing Shamisen
Suzuki Harunobu 鈴木春信, Woman Playing Shamisen, Edo period, circa 1765-1770. Ukiyo-e woodblock print in "chūban" format; ink and color on paper. Harvard Art Museums.
A woman lost in music, from the same years when Harunobu was perfecting colour printing. The shamisen accompanied songs of love and longing in Edo Japan.
For a musician, or for a couple who met over music.
5. The Fisherman at Kajikazawa
Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾 北斎, The Fisherman at Kajikazawa, c. 1830/33. Color woodblock print; oban. Art Institute of Chicago.
From Hokusai’s Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, the series that includes the Great Wave. A fisherman stands on a rock, his lines and body forming a triangle that echoes the mountain behind.
Blue and white, calm and strong: one of the most giftable Japanese prints.
6. Atsumori
Tsukioka Kogyo, Atsumori, 1898/1903. Color woodblock print. Art Institute of Chicago.
Tsukioka Kogyo devoted his life to prints of Noh theatre. Atsumori is a young warrior who carried a flute into battle; the play is about remembering a life with grace.
Its gold background makes it a striking statement on a dark wall.
7. La Rose (The Rose)
Philibert Louis Debucourt, La Rose (The Rose), 1788. Color aquatint with engraving and etching in black ink on cream laid paper. Art Institute of Chicago.
Philibert-Louis Debucourt was the master of the French colour print in the 1780s. In La Rose a young man offers a single flower in a garden: courtship in its simplest form, printed in many colours from several plates.
Pastel greens and soft light for a bedroom or a dressing table.
8. Young Woman Seated on a Bed
Louis-Marin Bonnet, Young Woman Seated on a Bed, 1764–67. Chalk-manner etching and engraving printed in black and white on blue paper. Cleveland Museum of Art.
Louis-Marin Bonnet was famous for prints that looked like chalk drawings. This young woman on a bed, printed in shades of blue, has the intimacy of a sketch made in a private room.
A lovely bedroom piece; the blues work in any season.
9. Brita's Forty Winks. From A Home
Carl Larsson, Brita's Forty Winks. From A Home, 1899. Watercolour. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.
Carl Larsson painted his family home in Sundborn in watercolour, and the book that came from it, A Home, changed Swedish interiors for ever. Here his daughter Brita takes a nap under a red blanket.
A gentle gift for couples starting a family.
10. Saint Eustace
Albrecht Dürer, Saint Eustace, ca. 1501. Atelier colour edition of the engraving. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Dürer’s largest engraving, made around 1501, is packed with detail: a castle, a horse, five hounds and the stag whose vision converted the hunter Eustace. Here it is in Fable’s colour edition of the engraving.
For an anniversary gift that rewards close looking.
11. The Virgin and Child by the Wall
Albrecht Dürer, The Virgin and Child by the Wall, 1514. Atelier colour edition of the engraving. Cleveland Museum of Art.
Dürer engraved this quiet Madonna in 1514: mother and child resting by a wall at the edge of a German town. Fable’s colour edition brings gentle blues and warm stone to the engraved line.
A calm, tender print for a couple expecting their first child.
12. The Angel
William Blake, The Angel, [1794] printed ca. 1825. Atelier colour edition of the relief etching. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Blake printed his own poems, etching words and images together on copper and colouring them by hand. The Angel, from Songs of Experience, is a short poem about love and fear: a perfect paper gift for a poetry lover.
A page to frame beside your wedding vows.
A first anniversary gift should feel like the start of a collection. Choose one print for the first year, and add one each year after: by your tenth anniversary you will have a gallery wall that tells your story.
Questions
What is the traditional first anniversary gift?
Paper. It stands for a new marriage: a blank page that the couple will write together. The modern alternative is clocks, but paper remains the best known.
Is an art print a paper gift?
Yes. A fine art print on paper fits the tradition exactly, and choosing a work that was itself made on paper, such as a Japanese woodblock print or an engraving, makes the gift doubly fitting.
What else makes a good first anniversary gift?
A portrait of the couple made from a wedding photo, a print of a painting from a place you visited together, or a love story from art history, such as Harunobu’s lovers beneath an umbrella.