Art Appreciation: Winter in Art

This talk delves into the evocative portrayals of winter across centuries of art, tracing how artists have captured the season's beauty, melancholy, and profound stillness. Starting with some medieval illuminations from the Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder's vibrant 16th-century village scenes, we’ll explore how winter's communal spirit and harsh conditions were depicted with lively details. Moving into the 19th century, Caspar David Friedrich used winter’s isolation to convey Romantic themes of solitude and spiritual reflection, where icy landscapes become meditative spaces. We will see echoes of such themes in the wintry scenes of Nordic artists such as Harald Sohlberg and Edvard Munch at the end of the 19th century. Theirmoonlit snowy scenes highlight the profound silence and beauty of Nordic winters. We then turn to Impressionist masters Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley, we will see how they rendered winter in lush colours and luminous tones, capturing fleeting effects of light and atmosphere on snow-covered fields. Through these artists’ and many more others’ varied lenses, we’ll discuss how winter's representations reveal cultural attitudes and emotional resonances, from communal resilience to personal reflection. Perfect for art lovers and those drawn to seasonal landscapes, this talk provides a fascinating journey through winter’s changing artistic legacy, revealing how each era reimagined the season’s quiet power.