The Art of Snowstorms Visual Essay

 The Art of Snowstorms Visual Essay

1
Figure in Snow
Peter Doig (1959- ), British
Oil and wood collage on board, 12" x 13" (w x h), 1997
Christie's 2013 auction sold $145,875 / 145,875 GBP

Source: Wiki, edited
Peter Doig (1959- ) is a British painter who has lived and worked between England, Scotland, Trinidad, Canada, the USA and Germany. He settled in Trinidad with his family between 2002 and 2021, when he moved back to London. Best known for his uncanny landscapes, Doig's work takes in a range of subjects inspired by his personal experiences, from snowscapes and ski scenes reminiscent of childhood memories from Canada, to beach and jungle scenes from Trinidad. In 2007, his painting White Canoe (1990-91) sold at Sotheby's for $11.3 million, then an auction record for a living European artist. Phillips auctioned Peter Doig's 1991 canvas, Rosedale, depicting a Toronto snowfall, sold for $28.8 million, an auction record for the artist at the time.

2

The Blizzard
Joseph Farquharson, R.A. (1846-1935), Scottish
Oil on canvas, 19" x 24" (w x h), circa 1910
Bonhams Edinburgh art auction
sold for $47,300 USD / 35,250 GBP
Private Collection

Source: Wiki, edited
Joseph Farquharson, R.A. (Royal Academy of Arts) (1846-1935), was a Scottish painter, is most famous for his snowy winter landscapes, often featuring sheep and often depicting dawn or dusk. When Joseph reached the age of 12, His father, Francis, bought his son his first paints and only a year later he exhibited his first painting at the Royal Scottish Academy. He combined a long and prolific career as a painter with his inherited role as a Scottish laird (a minor lord), painting in both oils and water colors. He was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1900, Royal Academician in 1915 and Senior Royal Academician in 1922. In addition to exhibiting over 200 works at the Royal Academy he showed 73 at the Royal Society of Arts and 181 at the Fine Art Society. He also exhibited at the Royal College of Art and the Tate Gallery. His painting The Shortening Winter's Day is Near a Close is well known, reproduced on popular Hallmark Christmas cards for over 30 years. See it HERE.

3

Blizzard Cushing (Maine)
Lois Dodd (1927- ), American
Oil on Masonite, 16" x 10" (w x h), 2021
Alexandre Gallery, NY

Source: Wiki, The Brooklyn Rail, edited
Blizzard Cushing is a winter view from the Lois Dodd's studio in Maine. It hung next to the gallery's windows, and its specks of snow mirrored those outside catching the day's fading gray. Dodd's painting's flurries are made of thinned dabs of purplish-gray oil, not white, disappearing into a dark sky and reappearing against branches and gleaming snow banks. As part of the wave of New York modernists to explore the coast of Maine just after the end of the second World War, Dodd began spending her summers in the Mid-Coast region surrounding Penobscot Bay. Dodd said, "I would find it, see it, and say 'that's exciting' but I don't want to set things up." It is in her finding and framing of the everyday that something quietly original and deeply felt permeates the work. By painting her immediate circumstances, Dodd rejected the sources that others of her generation took as a given. At 98-years-old, Lois Dodd continues to paint.

4

Snow Storm
Anton Mauve (1838-1888), Dutch
Oil on canvas, 12" x 8" (w x h), 1880
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin OH

Source: Wiki and Allen Memorial Art Museum notes, edited
Anton Mauve (1838-1888), a Dutch realist painter, was one of the leading painters of the Hague School, a Dutch group known for its interest in recording the natural effects of light and atmosphere. The painters of the Hague school used relatively somber colors, hence also called the Gray School. Mauve was married to van Gogh's cousin on his mother's side. Mauve was a major influence on van Gogh, who revered him. He is mentioned, directly or indirectly, in 152 of van Gogh's surviving letters. Mauve particularly excelled in rendering the profound silence and desolation of winter and often painted directly from nature  plein air to capture the nuances of his favorite season. It seems likely that this Oberlin picture was painted on the spot, considering its modest size, swift brushwork, and the fact that the painted design extends beyond the edges of the original canvas stretcher. The modest winter scene set with an almost monochromatic palette is suffused with a silvery light. Van Gogh dedicated one of his most iconic paintings to Mauve's memory after hearing of his sudden death.

5
Winter Landscape
Pekka Halonen (1865-1933), Finnish
Oil painting, 31" x 39" (w x h), 1922
Tuusula Art Museum, within
EMMA - Espoo Museum of Modern Art, Espoo, Finland,
the largest museum in Finland

Source: Wiki, edited
Pekka Halonen (1865-1933), known for capturing the quiet grandeur of Finland's nature, paintings often convey a sense of intimacy with the natural world. Here he uses cool blues, whites, and gentle greys, with some warm ochre or brown to evoke the stillness and cold of a Finnish winter. In 1890 he went to Paris where he first studied at the Academie Julian and later under Paul Gauguin. In 1895, Pekka Halonen married a young music student, Maija Makinen. They had eight children, four sons and four daughters. That same year Halonen settled down in a house with a studio, Halosenniemi, on Lake Tuusula in Tuusula, Finland. It was designed by Pekka and his brother. The landscape nearby was an important source of inspiration for his art. On the shores of the lake an artists' community flourished, helping to develop a sense of Finnish national identity. In 1900, he created two works for the Finnish Pavilion at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Halosenniemi is now a museum that includes original furnishings and Pekka Halonen's own art. Halonen stated that he never painted for anyone but himself. He felt that "Art should not jar the nerves like sandpaper; it should produce a feeling of peace."

6

Snow-covered Fir Frees on a
Shimmering Winter Day
Bror Lindh (1877-1941), Swedish
Oil on canvas, 119" x 95", circa 1910-1929

Source: Wiki, edited
Bror Johan Lindh, born Bror Jansson (1877-1941) Bror Lindh (1877-1941) was a Swedish painter, graphic artist and cartoonist, who specialized in winter landscapes. He was part of the Jansson family, whose members had worked as painters since the 1700s. His father, the artist Carl Jansson (1844-1914), added Lindh to their name during a trip to Stockholm in 1863. In 1899 Bror attended the Swedish Artists' Association painting school, but was more interested in student life. He moved to Varmland, swore a vow of chastity and poverty, and maintained contact with a nearby artists' colony. He developed his signature style, featuring muted colors. But in the 1920s he withdrew from social life and lived in isolation. In his final years, he was a virtual hermit, at an old farmhouse. His works may be seen at the Moderna Museet, the Goteborgs Konstmuseum, and the Varmlands Museum.

7

Snow Scene (Likely New Hampshire)
Alexander Robertson James (1890-1946), American
Oil on panel, 18" x 22" (w x h), circa 1920-1946
Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME

Sources: Various including Keene State College, edited
Alexander Robertson James was born in Cambridge MA (1890) and died in Dublin, NH (1946). He was the son of William James, the Harvard philosophy professor, and nephew of Henry James, the novelist. His father hoped he'd attend Harvard but due to a learning disability, dyslexia, unknown at the time, he failed the entrance exam. He studied art with Abbott Thayer in Dublin, NH, and Frank Benson at the Museum School of The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA. James spent time in California, New York, and Washington, DC where he taught at the Corcoran School of Art, before moving to Dublin in 1920. His early career was spent as a successful portrait artist where he won the respect and friendship of John Singer Sargent. In 1931, he gave up taking on commissioned portraits altogether and retreated to a farmhouse in nearby Richmond, NH where he painted local farmers and friends as character studies. He later moved home to Dublin. On the day of his funeral, everything stopped in the village of Dublin, no work was performed, all stores were closed. The church was filled to capacity to honor their extraordinary artist, friend and citizen. Read a slightly more extended biography of this fascinating artist at Monadnock Art HERE.

8
After a Snowstorm (Montreal)
Mabel Lockerby (1882-1976), Canadian
Oil on panel, 9" x 12" (w x h), circa 1935

Sources: Wiki and Turkish Magazine Soylenti Dergi, edited
Mabel Lockerby (1882-1976), a member of the Canadian Beaver Hall group, painting style is characterized by rich colors, visible brushstrokes and strong sense of design. She primarily painted portraits, still lifes and landscapes with figures. The painters of Group of Seven were only men and offered landscapes of Canada's country. Contrary to this, the painters in the Beaver Hall group, half men and half women, presented modern colors and landscapes of northern culture. In an age when women artists were excluded from the professional art world, this group became the first Canadian art movement to be at the forefront of women. The National Gallery of Canada has four of her pieces in their collection. Her work is also in the collections at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Art Gallery of Hamilton.