BOURNEMOUTH, England—British artist John Brett (1831–1902) painted the striking sunrise unfolding before him just off the Isle of Anglesey in north Wales on Christmas day, 1866.
More than 30 years later, in 1898, Brett married that Anglesey sunrise of reds, pinks, and purples with a dark stormy sea, which he had painted in the summer of 1867, and created the painting “Christmas Morning 1866.” The tremendous beauty and power of the dazzling sunrise that Brett set against the violent sea almost overshadows the tragic subject of the painting: the sinking of SS London.
