Bridgeman Art Library reveals the 'top five favourites' for art Christmas card images in 2007

• Religious themes come out top - demonstrating they are still popular in UK's multi-million-pound Christmas card industry
• Growing number of secular images meets demand of UK's international demographic
• Popularity of Japanese art continues to increase

LONDON - 10 December 2007 - The Bridgeman Art Library, the renowned fine art image library, has announced the 'top five' Christmas card trends for 2007. This year, Bridgeman has licensed over 200 images for Christmas cards and once again, traditional religious images come in first place - particularly fine art depictions of angels. A newcomer to the top five list is Japanese art: this year, a number of major greetings card companies, including Hallmark and Paperchase, have licensed Japanese snow scenes such as the Kuniyoshi woodblock print of A Snowstorm at Kinryozan Temple - Click here for a picture. The Bridgeman list shows that the UK's multi-million-pound Christmas card industry offers a wide choice of religious and secular images and messages to meet consumers’ varied and evolving tastes.

Just below traditional religious iconography in the top five are religious images by contemporary artists. These include pictures such as Three Kings Following a Star (2001) - Click here for a picture - which follows a biblical/nativity theme, but in a modern, highly decorative and fun style. Japanese art and London scenes come in third and fourth place. The library has had a number of notable licensors for pictures of the capital, including the Lord Mayor of the City of London who selected Canaletto's River Thames with St Paul's Cathedral for the 2007 City of London official Christmas card and the House of Lords, who selected an image from the Dickens House Museum as well as a London scene.

Harriet Bridgeman, founder of the Bridgeman Art Library, said, "We have been licensing images for Christmas cards for over 30 years and in that time, there has been a definite move by greetings cards companies towards secular images. There is now a trend towards celebrating the season as opposed to focusing on one religious festival. Traditional religious themed cards certainly haven’t been abandoned; there is still a big market for them alongside the recent popularity of the Japanese winter scenes.

"We are always flattered by the number of people who tell us that they look out for Bridgeman Art Library cards every year because they are always the most original and attractive designs. Our cards have the added advantage of returning money to museums, other organisations and artists, as well as the very worthwhile charities they support."

The Bridgeman Art Library's 'top five favourites' for Christmas card images:

1. Traditional fine art religious images
2. Semi-religious images by contemporary artists
3. Japanese art
4. London scenes
5. Comic/naive

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