Edouard Manet, so famous for his many works that advanced our ideas about painting, tried his hand at painting snow scenes. He gave up, saying that no one could do it like Monet. So what does Monet do that is so special? Snow normally reduces landscapes to a rather stark scale of black, white and gray. In some cases it covers things that might be rather ugly, like old poorly kept houses and dirty streets, with a lovely blanket of white. However, even forests to the casual observer are just dark branches, deep green conifer needles, and relentless white.
Well, Monet was never a casual observer of anything, and we can see in his painting above that he in particular took note of the sky. We have all seen those wintry skies when the light fades around 4:30 in the afternoon and the sun, no longer in plain view, still lights up the undersides of the clouds. That twilight sky is Monet’s special touch in this painting. As travelers on the road in this painting, that colorful sky not only alleviates the dead of winter, but it gives us a touch of the beautiful that we can really appreciate since we also see houses coming into view, which means our cold weather journey is about to end. So we notice those little spots of color, perhaps the last of autumn still coming through the snow on the side of the road. In particular, we can wonder at the way the crystalline ice over the snow shows itself blue while reflecting winter sunset pinks. It is all an enjoyable experience that we can talk about over something hot to drink before dinner when we arrive home, just a little distance down the way.
Monet’s skill and Manet’s dictum aside, snow paintings have been done by many other artists, with a variety of different feelings and effects.
Here we have a fellow Impressionist, Camille Pissarro, once again putting the viewer in the cold countryside, but not too distant from home. We see the figure leaning forward in the direction of the buildings, clearly indicating his intent to get there and inside. The atmosphere is once again a winter twilight, right at late afternoon. Pissarro infuses the scene with blue, ranging from pale blue to deep blue-violet and touches of lavender, all effective ways of rendering the feeling of cold. The eye-catching beauty belongs to the trees. Their gnarled trunks and branches have caught and held the snow, bringing traces of white up from the foreground into the main picture plain and finally up to that frosty blue sky. Those same trees in their black and dark gray stand out against the blue-gray and blue-violet background, indication of more dense forest in the distance. The tree branches dance, leaning like the man in the foreground away from the direction the wind is blowing. All this forward movement points to the sturdy buildings not too far in the distance. Once again the viewer can enjoy the cold beauty of winter without fear since shelter is not far away.
Of courses, romantic paintings of the snowy countryside are wonderfully appealing; however, it snows in the city, too. Gustave Caillebotte, friend, and patron of the Impressionists and a fine painter himself, gives us a different winter view.
Here the viewer is safe and warm inside a building rather high up and one with a city view. Of course the steely gray of the city in winter makes for a feeling of closed in isolation. Yet there are some nice touches of muted red that lead our eye into the picture, from the close in clay chimney pots to a distant façade of a building. However, the thin strip of dead gray sky falls like a heavy curtain, sealing us in with little desire to go out. Caillebotte was a man about town who was always out and about. In fact, he is probably most famous for his painting of finely dressed people strolling the streets of Paris under their umbrellas, but yes, still strolling in the rain (see his Paris Street Rainy Day, 1877). I like to think that in this painting of snow, he was perhaps feeling a bit trapped by the miserable weather and decided to turn it into art.
Snow is still a worthwhile and interesting subject for painters. The piece below is by a talented young Colorado artist who does plein air painting, Jared Brady, see jaredbrady.com/artwork
Brady captures the vertiginous slant of the mountain with its aspens marching downhill in almost military formation. They seem to push aside the conifers to take center stage as the subject of this painting. The sunlight on the snow moves the eye back up the hillside to a bit of exposed reddish rock (this is Colorado after all), some distant evergreens, and beyond that to the blue sky. That sunlight becomes dappled, as its rays push back into the thickness of the trees. That dance of light is cheerful. The whole scene leaves one with the feeling of having just taken a stroll in the forest after a fresh fall of snow.
One way to really appreciate the elements of a painting such as Winter Light is to see how the artist approaches doing it. Brady does not leave us out of his process, as we can see here in his video, Winter Aspens, showing his plein air techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH_YxPV2hpo
Well, after all of this wandering about in the snow, it is now time to come in from the cold and see what we can do to warm ourselves up.
Paintings are in Public Domain or used with the artist’s permission.
Marjorie Vernelle is an artist, writer, college professor, and traveler. For more see the Pages at ofartandwine.com or her author page at amazon.com and her art at Vernelle Art Boutique vernellestudio.com.
Mulled Wine: Recipes for Wintertime Cheer
As with so many things that have come down to us, all roads lead to Rome. It was the Romans who spread this cold weather drink all throughout their vast empire. Yet, it was the Ancient Greeks who tipped the Romans off to the wonders of hot wine with spices. For the Ancient Greeks, it was a matter of what to do with low quality wine. Pouring it out is never a good solution, so as the winter winds began to blow, the idea of warming the wine up with a touch of spices and citrus seemed like a good idea. The fact that it made you feel good obviously meant it was good for you, even medicinal. In fact, they named this concoction after Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine. For more on this story and other aspects of mulled wine in history plus eight recipes to try, see “The Long, Storied History of Mulled Wine” at vinepair.com
Having spent a number of years living in Avignon, which had its heyday in the 14th century, I naturally turn to the wisdom of the Middle Ages. When the winter winds come blowing down the Rhone River, I can tell you, a hot wine is a near lifesaver. The comments below attest to the wisdom of those medieval times.
“Spiced wines were usually made by mixing an ordinary (red) wine with an assortment of spices such as ginger, cardamom, pepper, grains of paradise, nutmeg, cloves and sugar. These would be contained in small bags which were either steeped in wine or had liquid poured over them to produce hypocras and claré. By the 14th century, bagged spice mixes could be bought ready-made from spice merchants.”
These comments on spiced or mulled wines, and the recipe come from the Medieval Drinks section of Life in a Medieval Castle castlesandmanorhouses.com It would seem that the idea of mulled wine as a comfort drink in those cold medieval castles spawned an expansion in the spice trade with the introduction of those pre-mixed spice packages. One can only imagine the competition to come up with winning names for each mix, designed to enthrall the women who shopped for the castles.
But let us leave the chilled confines of the Middle Ages. We live in the age of crock pots and slow cooking methods. Yes, you can allow the ingredients to mellow for two hours as suggested in thespruceeats.com article on slow cooker mulled wine. This technique not only creates a richly flavored mulled wine, but also perfumes the house with cheery warm celebratory scents. On the other hand, we live in the age of instant or almost that, so a twenty minute brew comes in handy when last minute guests come for some holiday cheer.
The photo above comes from Gimme some Oven gimmesomeoven.com and comes with detailed instructions on how to make it. Just click the link above. For yummy things to eat with your mulled wine, I once again refer you to The Spruce Eats for the quick, delicious treat called Devils on Horseback (made with dates), or if you are just coming from church, Angels on Horseback (made with apricots) thespruceeats.com.
While one does not need more that a red table wine to create a mulled wine, it is not necessary to give up drinking the good stuff. For that you might consider joining a wine club. Click on Cellars Wine Club under Of Art and Wine Pages on your left to see the various ways to get into some very good wine from the U.S. and from around the world, including wines in the 90+ category. There is a club for every level of taste and budget and a “no bad bottle” return policy. As well you can indicate which of a number of vetted charities you want Cellars to donate to: cellarswineclub.com
So start the holiday season off with an artistic and creative way to enjoy the snow, like being inside by a cozy fire, looking at snow paintings, and sipping a hot cup of homemade mulled wine. Sounds good to me!
Images of paintings are in public domain, except those from Jared Brady, which are used with the artist’s permission.
Of Art and Wine affiliates with Bluehost.com and CellarsWineClub.com and may earn from qualifying purchases.
©marjorie vernelle 2019
Coming soon: The Medici Palace’s Procession of the Magi and Sparkling Shiraz.
This portion of wall is just part of what surrounds one completely in the Medici Chapel. Ostensibly designed to show a religious scene, this creation took the opportunity to show off the importance of wealth in all its exotic forms. The Medici were merchant princes after all. The three kings of the Orient are shown bearing royal gifts for the Christ child in celebration of his birth. Since one of the wise men was Persian, he might just have brought another item from his land, a deep red wine called Shiraz, which we can now have in a sparkling form. What a nice touch for a celebration like Christmas.