Bronowski Christmas Card 1951

Christmas Card made by Jacob and Rita Bronowski, December 1951. The landscape image in watercolour and body colour by Rita Bronowski shows a hand in green over yellow and brown rectangles, with snow flakes in white, black, red and green, a star in black. Initialled RB. The printed poem by Jacob Bronowski references snowfall and the nativity. Handwritten message and signature opposite.

One of a set of six Christmas cards (2019-2 to 2019-7) sent to journalist Gritta Weil in the 1950s, each with an original illustration by Rita Bronowski and a printed poem by Jacob Bronowski. Engaging with scientific subjects in conjunction with biblical narratives and images steeped in contemporary visual ideas, these cards comment on the famous Two Cultures debate, both personally and professionally. Polymathic scientist and BBC presenter Jacob influenced a generation of popular science, supported and inspired by his sculptor wife Rita. The cards date from the period when Bronowski was developing his argument (in Science and Human Values, 1956) that civilization required science to work in dialogue with its social environment. Snow himself recognised Bronowski’s contribution to the debate which still shapes how art is seen in a science context, and vice versa.