The Bigger Picture: Winter landscapes, scenes of snow and solitude

There are two types of people when it snows: those who jump outside to make snowmen until they can’t feel their fingers, and those who would rather stay inside curled up with a hot chocolate and their electric blanket. Whichever person you are, we can all agree that the snow makes everything a bit more beautiful. I know we are all guilty of posting that perfect snowy photo on our social media and inevitably get annoyed when footprints appear on it throughout the day. This awe that we share towards the snow isn’t new, there are many paintings of winter landscapes that artists felt the need to capture from across many centuries that all have their own unique style and symbolism.

Bruegel set new standards for art during the Renaissance and inspired many artists

We’re starting off in 1565, in the Northern European Renaissance. Pieter Bruegel the Elder created a six-part series called Labour of the Months, the one we’re going to focus on is called Hunters in the Snow. This painting is the winter section of Bruegel’s series, giving the viewer a bird’s eye view of a wintery open landscape with highly realistic details. You could look at it for hours and still discover new features! Bruegel set new standards for art during the Renaissance and inspired many artists. He depicts a snapshot of daily peasant life, with no one aware of the presence of a viewer besides the dog in the bottom left. The hunters in the foreground seem solemn, suggesting an unsuccessful hunt, and emphasising the harsh realities of winter. Whereas in the distance we can see activities such as ice skating that show the two sides of winter. The landscape illustrates Bruegel’s talent for colour, using whites and greys to create a quiet atmosphere whilst also showing the beauty of the season.

Friedrich’s personal philosophy was that artists should reflect their soul and emotion in their work, a sentiment perfectly illustrated in his Winter Landscape

Someone who did appreciate a frosty landscape was Caspar David Friedrich; he was one of the most important figures in German Romantic art. The Romantic art period lasted less than 50 years but was an intellectual movement of art, literature and music that placed emphasis on emotion and individualism. In Friedrich’s Winter Landscape, created in 1811, we can see the quiet scene of a man praying. Whilst the emphasis is focused on the solitude and sublime nature of the landscape, the effect of seeing this man cast his crutches aside triggers emotion in the reader. Furthermore, there is a theme of ‘threes’ here – the man prays in front of three fir trees reflecting that of the Holy Trinity (The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit). Friedrich doesn’t stop there, the Gothic cathedral in the backdrop reflects the fir trees as well. All these features mesh together to create an image of hope, rebirth and religion, even the grass poking out of the snow hints to renewal. Wait, but what does sublime mean? The definition of sublime has been disputed for years amongst scholars, but the general idea is that to make a landscape sublime it’s got to be covered in fog and appear never ending. This artistic effect heightens the imagination of the viewer, increasing the anxiety of the unknown. Friedrich’s personal philosophy was that artists should reflect their soul and emotion in their work, a sentiment perfectly illustrated in his Winter Landscape.

Although Monet is widely renowned for his images of summer landscapes, his winter ones are just as captivating

64 years after Friedrich’s painting, we have moved from Germany to Paris, France. Claude Monet moved to Argenteuil, a suburb of Paris, and produced 200 paintings over the six years that he lived there. In these 200 paintings, Monet made a particularly eye-catching painting called Snow at Argenteuil. Although Monet is widely renowned for his images of summer landscapes, his winter ones are just as captivating. In the period of Impressionism, we see a shift from historical paintings that prioritised the academic technique of perspective, to painting the world around them with more of a flat background. The painting technique that dominated Impressionism was impasto. This was the use of thick dollops of paint that when looked upon up close created a blurry mess, but when you stand at a distance the painting forms a slightly clearer picture. At this particular time, Paris was experiencing significant societal changes. The city’s structure was evolving and as a result the population of Paris rapidly increased. Instead of rejecting this, Monet embraced modernity in his art. Artists, like Monet, wanted to capture the constant movement of the city with the signature Impressionist painting technique, but also to highlight the flâneur. The flâneur was the anonymous individual amongst the crowded cityscape that has been an effect of urbanisation within Europe. In Snow at Argenteuil, Monet uses Impressionism to create a serene landscape with the use of white, blue, grey and pink pigments. His use of pink tones makes a typically cold and harsh winter look almost warm and inviting.