The Art of Winter

The Art of Winter

by Natalie Howarth

The Magpie (1868), Claude Monet

The stunning portrayal of a liminal field enveloped in thick snow; this painting is part of Claude Monet’s series of landscapes. He uses the Impressionistic style that he is known for to strike a strong sense of familiarity with the setting. Displayed at the world-renowned Musée d’Orsay, art historians suspect that there were many severe winters in France, based on this painting and the landscape of winter as a central and recurring theme for art at the time. I really love this painting; the idyllic scene featuring a solitary pigeon perched on a rustic gate in a contemplative trance with beams of light on the pigeon offers comfort. As Monet’s largest winter painting, the hallmark of the technique is plain air combined with the bending of light and ambience creating a calming view of the snow.

Berkeley Square (c.1935), Stanislawa De Karlowska

Stanislawa De Karlowska’s delineation of Berkeley Square located in Mayfair in the City of Westminster is a beautiful yet poignant reflection of isolation in a modern city during the war. There are only a few people and some cars in the frame that are made to look miniscule compared to the trees and the buildings. De Karlowska was a modernist painter who in this painting took inspiration from Polish folk art and used the colours in this painting to create an air of mundanity: it feels greyscale, with some hues of purple and yellow from the dim streetlights lighting up the area. Overall, I find this portrayal of a winter’s day in the square as a contemplative plain, revealing the mundanity and loneliness of living in a big city like London with consideration of the time De Karlowska painted this.

View from the Window (1925), Marie-Louise Von Motesiczky

A portrait that encapsulates the feeling of being an observer over a snowy setting and taking comfort in it, Marie-Louise Von Motesiczky’s view from her fourthfloor flat in Vienna zooms in on the concision of nature and the urban. The vantage point overlooking part of the Johan Strauss Theatre really creates a sense of comfort since the perspective it is drawn from is within the confines of her room and she is simply watching the world pass. There is something so pleasurable about sitting inside with a hot drink and watching the turn of nature and how powerful it is without experiencing the chilled air of wintertime.

The Road to Versailles at Louveciennes (1869), Camille Pissarro

Another Impressionist depiction that captures the sheer beauty and essence of winter, Camille Pissarro painted his quotidian winter walk viewpoint from a linear perspective to create depth and realism. The location of the painting is a suburb of Paris yet exhibits a very rural landscape: with considerations of industrialisation in France during this time period, this painting is devoid of context and favours the quaintness and tranquillity of the ruralism seen in the French countryside. The presence of figures walking along the road is not the central focus of the paintings, yet they are indicative of a sense of life, bringing a humanistic element to the painting that balances the ambienceunlike Monet’s The Magpie, as the empty fields invite an understanding of solitude. The Road to Versailles at Louveciennes is a visually peaceful painting that uses light and shadows to achieve softness and evoke a calming quality.

Gion Shrine in Snow (1834), Utagawa Hiroshige

Utagawa Hiroshige’s landscape is covered in a blanket of snow, using blue hues to convey a real chill to the environment of the painting. Painted onto a traditional woodblock print, there is a real evocation of stillness and tranquillity that is conventional of Hiroshige’s works. The chill ambience of the colour palette that uses predominantly cool tones - hues of blue, grey, and white – is contrasted with the women in orange kimonos holding umbrellas, exploring perhaps a connection between humanity and nature as the women are in the snowfall. A feature that I love about Hiroshige’s works is the focus on traditional Japanese architecture: his portrayal of the stone tori gate creates more depth and intricacy within the painting. The historical significance of the Gion Shrine in Kyoto is important to identify as it is a cultural institution which should be observed.

Art as a medium has a significant visual and communicative function and I think the diverse portrayals of winter enable the opportunity to gain cultural exchange. When communicating ‘the most wonderful time of the year’, there are many expectations for the right and just portrayals of beautiful, snowy landscapes. The juxtaposition of winter as tranquil but also bleak is at the centre of inspiration for creatives when producing any art form: there is so much beauty in the contrasting and contradicting perspectives of winter, regardless of the angle the artist takes.