Winter in art

“The Magpie,” by Claude Monet (1869) Wikipedia image, creative commons

The BBC just ran an item called “How great artists depict winter in 10 sublime paintings.” I’m passing that along here because I’d only seen about a third of them. My favorite among those 10 was a Monet winter scene (“The Magpie”, shown above) from an artist more-usually known for lily ponds and verdant flower gardens.

I like Monet, and thought I was somewhat familiar with his paintings. But not nearly enough, it turns out. Here’s a website that purports to present Monet’s complete works. A nice stroll through an on-line gallery, if you’ve the inclination to do that.

It’s been fun watching images of winter (and all the seasons) in NCPR’s photo of the day too. That site does organize by some categories and seasons, such as “Winter 2012-13”.

Do you have a favorite painting or work of art that depicts winter? Something I really enjoy about winter is how rapidly things can change. At times my favorite winter scene is what’s out the window right now. Except when contemplating the mountains of snow making troublesome ice dams on our roof! Then my thoughts are far less sanguine.

Tags: art, Monet, painting, winter