Ice and snow in paintings of
Little Ice Age winters
Department of Geography, University of
North Carolina, USA
All aspects of the weather can be shown in
traditional landscape paintings (Bonacina
1939). So far, however, most studies of the
relation between weather and painting
have concentrated on clouds and their accurate depiction (Thornes 2000). The recent
web-based exhibition “Painting the
weather”, organised by the BBC and the
National Gallery (Stemp 2002), indicated a
range of ways in which weather may influence painting. Two traditional museumbased exhibitions have recently suggested
links between winter weather and landscape art. “Holland frozen in time: The Dutch
winter landscape in the Golden Age”was the
title of an exhibition in The Hague (Von
Suchtelen 2001) dealing with winter landscapes in the 1600–75 period, the Dutch
Golden Age. Ice scenes dominate. An exhibition in Washington, DC, “Impressionists in
winter: Effets de neige” (Moffett et al. 1998),
showed conditions in northern France
between about 1860 and 1890. Snow was
dominant. Even allowing for the different
techniques, periods and locations, the differences in the meteorology between these
two exhibitions was striking. They reinforced
Neuberger’s (1970) contention that climate
has a major, often subconscious, influence
on the painted scene. They also suggested
that it might be possible to expand
Burroughs’ (1981) finding of a connection
between the onset of the Little Ice Age and
the resultant winter landscapes in The
Netherlands. Since he wrote, our understanding of the nature and causes of the
Little Ice Age and our knowledge of art
history have greatly expanded; so now it is
possible to suggest some links between art
and climate for virtually the whole of the
Little Ice Age period. Here, following the
hints offered by the exhibitions, winter
conditions are considered, particularly the
contrasts between snow and ice scenes. No
single region has a complete painted
‘record’ of these conditions, but the Low
Countries, treated somewhat loosely as the
coastal plain of the current Netherlands,
Belgium and northern France, provide a
suitable focus.
For this Low Countries area an annual
‘Winter Severity Index’ has been created by
Van Engelen et al. (2001) from approximately 1350 onwards (Fig. 1). The index is based
on observations, written records and proxy
methods, not including pictures, to estimate
the intensity and duration of low temperatures and frozen conditions. It should be
possible to link this index directly to painted
scenes. Meteorological understanding of climatic fluctuations during the Little Ice Age is
increasing through use of the North Atlantic
Oscillation (NAO) Index, which is now available, also using proxy and observational
data, as seasonal values from 1500 onwards
(Luterbacher et al. 2002) (Fig. 1). The NAO
Index is based on the pressure difference
between the Azores high and the Icelandic
low. A positive index occurs with a welldeveloped high over the Azores and a deep
low over Iceland. The resulting strong south
to north pressure gradient stimulates a
strong, warm, wet south-westerly airflow
into the North Sea basin. A negative index,
with relatively high pressure over Iceland,
and relatively low pressure over the Azores,
indicates a blocking situation over western
Europe, giving generally weak westerlies but
a stronger northerly or easterly flow with
cold, dry conditions along the coastlands of
the Low Countries. Our current knowledge
of the relationship between NAO and climate mainly concerns temperature, but
there are tentative links between NAO values
and ice duration in some European lakes
(Hurrell et al. 2003). It is likely from synoptic
climatology that the development of frozen
lakes, rivers and canals, along with a light
dusting of snow, would be appropriate to a
negative NAO, whilst a positive value would
favour more frequent deep snowstorms.
There will, of course, be many local
exceptions. Further, the NAO values used
here are seasonal averages which contain
both negative and positive periods, so a
high correlation between NAO and snow or
ice conditions cannot be expected.
Weather – February 2005, Vol. 60, No. 2
Peter J. Robinson
1400–1590: Snow dominates
Prior to about 1400, Western art was mainly
concerned with religious observance.
Landscape, where it did appear, was only a
Fig. 1 25-year smoothed values of North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO, red line) (after Luterbacher et al. 2002)
and Winter Severity Index (blue line) (after Van Engelen et al. 2001). The Winter Severity Index values are
expressed as departures from the 1501–1900 mean and have been reversed, so that the most severe winters
are indicated by negative values.
37
Ice and snow in paintings
Weather – February 2005, Vol. 60, No. 2
38
symbolic background. Secular landscapes
did start to appear towards the end of the
fourteenth century. Scenes of ‘paradise
gardens’ and records of royal hunts were
common, where an emphasis on fair
weather was natural. Burroughs (1981) suggested that the relatively warm conditions
prevalent during this early artistic period
meant that the weather needed little attention. It was probably seen mainly as a
favourable, or simply insignificant, condition.
Early in the fifteenth century winters
began to increase in severity. The pictorial
landscape tradition in northern Europe also
began to change towards a more factual
representation of the land. ‘Books of hours’,
portable manuscript books serving as aids
to devotion for the aristocracy, became popular. Many had monthly calendar pages
illustrated with scenes specific to that
month. Most pictures were small and
stylised. A few suggest snow in some winter
months. One of the most famous, “Les très
riches heures du Duc de Berry”, now in the
Musée Condé in Chantilly, France, was created by the Limbourg brothers (active
1375–1425) about 1413. It includes a fullpage outdoor picture for each month.
“February” (Limbourg brothers c. 1413)
shows an overcast snow-covered landscape,
while through the open door of a house
people can be seen warming themselves
before a blazing fire. The view is somewhat
schematic, but appears as a true, closely
observed, climatological picture.
The frequency of snow or ice scenes, both
in books of hours and in the increasingly
common independent easel-painted landscapes, declined after the early part of the
fifteenth century. Although this time of
decreasing winter severity may have discouraged the depiction of frozen conditions, it was also a time when artists were
heavily influenced by Italian styles, with the
consequent absence of any incentive to
show cold or snowy winters. Pieter Bruegel
the Elder (1525–69) changed this. His picture “Hunters in the snow” (Bruegel 1565),
showing three men trudging through deep
snow, with frozen ponds in the distance, has
become one of the icons of the Little Ice
Age. This snow scene, and the four others
reliably attributed to Bruegel, is usually associated with the major snowstorm and severe
winter in 1565. Other artists produced similar scenes, at least partly in hopes of sharing
the commercial success of Bruegel. Lucas
van Valckenborch (1535–97), for example,
painted snowscapes until the end of his life,
and became adept at showing snow actually falling (Fig. 2). The numerous winter
scenes of Jacob Grimmer (1525–90) and his
son Abel (1570–1619) carried on the snowy
tradition, but slowly decreasing the amount
of snow and increasing the prominence of
ice. Abel’s “Winter” (Grimmer 1607) shows
them of roughly equal importance. This,
however, was one of the last original representations of snowy scenes, although
copies or forgeries of Bruegel’s work persisted for several decades.
1590–1675: Icy winters
A period of severe winters and low NAO set
in around 1550 and lasted, with some milder
intervals, for over 100 years. The new lower
NAO values suggest icy conditions, and the
increased emphasis on ice in paintings
created after the time of Bruegel may reflect
this. Frozen rivers and canals with skaters
enjoying themselves on the ice became the
fashion. Avercamp’s (1585–1634) view
“Winter scene with skaters near a castle”
(Avercamp 1608), in London’s National
Gallery, epitomises the scenes which have
become the second pictorial icon of the
Little Ice Age. Most show only a light dusting
of snow.
While fun on the ice was clearly evident in
Avercamp’s world, the depicted weather
never seems to have been sunny. Rather, a
somewhat nondescript light altostratus or
stratocumulus is the norm, with indistinct
shadows on the ice. Whether this was a way
of avoiding problems of cloud perspective,
lack of confidence in the ability to portray a
high-albedo surface in the sun, or a true representation of climatological conditions is
a matter needing fuller investigation. Whilst
they are meteorologically possible, the skies
seem more appropriate for pictures where
work, rather than play, is the theme; and
indeed, as the Dutch Golden Age progressed through the seventeenth century,
the nature of the activity on the ice did
change. In 1646 Rembrandt (1606–69) produced his only winter landscape
(Rembrandt 1646). This shows a typical
frozen river and scattered patches of thin
snow, but now three peasants go about
their everyday business in a somewhat dour
mood. Somewhat unusually, they are sunlit.
The weak sunlight, entering from the right,
realistically illuminates the scene without
suggesting more than vague shadows and
reflections. The play of the light does allow
the sky to suggest aesthetically the arrival of
a bright period, but meteorologically it is
not completely convincing.
Later, the winter scenes of Van Ruisdael
(1628–82) suggest an even tougher existence. His “Winter landscape” (Van Ruisdael
1665) in Amsterdam shows a block of ice
which has been removed from the canal to
allow a fishing hole. It is approximately
50 cm thick, suggestive of a long period of
below-freezing weather, conditions probably common in the third quarter of the
century. Somewhat less extreme, but perhaps more typical, is his “Winter landscape”
from around the same time in Birmingham,
Alabama (Fig. 3). There is a little snow on the
ground and trees, and seemingly thin ice on
the river. Black cumulus clouds suggest,
aesthetically if not meteorologically, an
impending storm although, unusually for
this artist, there is a hint of sunlight. Van
Ruisdael’s 30 known winter scenes are all
similar to this, but they may give a somewhat biased view of contemporary winter
conditions. Several of his other landscapes
have leafless trees but no snow or ice, suggesting less severe winters; but he often
included trees representing several seasons
in one painting, so an assessment of the
frequency of warmer winters is difficult.
1675–1815: Few landscapes
After about 1675 there was a precipitous
drop in the quantity of landscapes produced
in the Low Countries. The reasons are gener-
Fig. 2 “Winter” by Lucas van Valckenborch, 1586 (© Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY)
Ice and snow in paintings
Weather – February 2005, Vol. 60, No. 2
ally attributed to causes unrelated to weather. In particular, an economic decline influenced the middle classes and forced many
of the masterpieces from the previous century on to the art market. They were cheaply available, and contemporary artists could
not compete. Simultaneously, the increasingly prosperous landed gentry favoured
topographic representations of their country property seen on sunlit summer days.
Fashion also dictated that it was preferable
that paintings be applied directly to the
walls rather than hung as pictures (Loos et
al. 1997). One common decorative scheme
was a set of four seasons. The few wall paintings that have survived, along with the small
number of contemporary pictures, echo the
international style associated with Versailles
and the French court of Louis XIV. “The four
seasons” (Boucher 1755) by François
Boucher (1703–70), now in New York, epitomise the style. The ice of winter is simply a
smooth surface along which to move a delicate sleigh.
After 1750 the art market revived somewhat and a number of winter landscapes,
particularly watercolours, were produced.
These harked back to the Golden Age.
Perhaps coincidentally, after a period of
intense cold late in the seventeenth century
and a much warmer period in the first half of
the eighteenth, winter weather conditions
also returned to those of the Golden Age
(Fig. 1). The 1779 work of Schweickhardt
(1746–97), “Skaters on a frozen canal”, in the
Louvre (Fig. 4), has the traditional curving
canal receding into the distance almost
directly away from the viewer. The canal is
flanked by several contemporary houses
and, naturally, a windmill, while numerous
people, mainly at leisure, are on the ice. The
main difference from a Golden Age picture
is that the winter sky, although cloudy,
shows some blue, looks much less threatening, and enhances the impression that this is
a leisure scene.
As the climate continued to deteriorate
towards the end of the eighteenth century,
dour ice scenes once again began to dominate. Furthermore, this was the time of the
Napoleonic wars, and for part of the time
France ruled The Netherlands. Ice scenes
were often used to emphasise Dutch heroism rather than reflect climate. “A scene on
the ice” (Vermeulen 1800) by Andries
Vermeulen (1763–1814) dates from around
1800 and appears to be an amalgamation of
the
influences
of
Boucher
and
Schweickhardt, with the people enjoying
themselves despite the weather and the
political situation.
Fig. 3 “Winter landscape” by Jacob van Ruisdael, 1660 (© Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, USA; gift of
Mr and Mrs William M. Spencer Jr)
1815–1900: Snow returns
The first few decades of the nineteenth century saw the end of French control of The
Netherlands, a rapid amelioration of winter
Fig. 4 “Skaters on a frozen canal” by Hendrick-Willem Schweickhardt, 1779 (© Réunion des Musées
Nationaux/Art Resource, NY)
39
Ice and snow in paintings
Weather – February 2005, Vol. 60, No. 2
severity, the spread of the Romantic movement, and the rise in outdoor sketching.
Dutch painters often used Golden Age pictorial formulae, modified by a less emotional version of German romanticism, and
freshened
by
outdoor
sketching.
Schelfhout’s (1787–1870) “Winter in
Holland” (Schelfhout 1843) typifies the
romantic modification of the long-standing
Dutch landscape tradition. The land surface,
with its receding frozen river, dusting of
snow, lone windmill, and skaters, is traditional; but the sky is different from that of
the Golden Age. Now there is an orange
sunset glow illuminating the dissipating
clouds in the light blue sky, the whole picture suggesting a calm, cold, but romantic,
evening. Bright, sunlit conditions are also
common in other winter scenes from this
period, such as the “Winter landscape”
(Koekkoek 1838) by Barend Koekkoek
(1803–62). While this is almost certainly
partly a response to changes in fashion, the
possibility that there were marked climatic
differences needs to be examined. There is
also an indication in some pictures that
snow depth was increasing in the early part
of the nineteenth century.
Another clear difference between the
seventeenth- and nineteenth-century pictures is the increased realism in the handling
of cloudscapes. The first half of the nineteenth century was a time when art and the
art market became increasingly international. Meteorologically, one major consequence was the influence that Dutch
pictures in English collections had on
Constable’s skies (Thornes 1999). In return,
Constable’s cloud pictures had a tremendous impact on his continental colleagues.
Equally stimulating was the new view of the
land surface provided by the freely brushed
watercolours of Constable’s English compatriots. For much of continental Europe this
new freer expression became allied with the
desire to paint close to nature. In The
Netherlands this led, in the 1860s, to the
development of the Hague School. Their aim
was to create realistic pictures of the contemporary Dutch landscape, undramatic
but evocative of the past. Winter scenes,
such as Anton Mauve’s (1838–88) work
“Riders in the snow of the woods at The
Hague” (Mauve 1879), showed snow rather
than ice. Rarely is there any impression that
frozen conditions lasted for an extended
time. This was a time when the winter severity was decreasing rapidly, temperatures
were usually rising, and NAO was consistently positive.
These changing conditions had an impact
on the artists working in the second half of
the century. One of the most influential of
these, linking the Netherlandish landscape
tradition to French Impressionism, was John
Barthold Jongkind (1819–91). Born in The
Netherlands and trained by Andreas
Schelfhout, he moved to France in 1846.
There his Dutch winter scenes influenced
local artists, often leading to imitation
(Fig. 5) or even outright forgery. He spent
some time painting alongside the
Impressionists, and Jongkind’s influence can
be seen in the structure of many of the
snowscapes that they produced from the
1860s onwards. Claude Monet (1840–1926)
freely acknowledged the influence and his
late 1870s’ view of “Lavacourt under snow”
(Monet 1878), currently in Dublin’s
Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, shows a
Fig. 5 “Skating in Holland” by imitator of Johan Barthold Jonkind, 1890–1900 (© National Gallery, London)
40
traditional composition based on a river
bank and receding river; but the view is now
modified by a more rolling topography,
more snow, and a very different painting
technique.
By the time we reach the latter part of the
nineteenth century we can date the time of
painting of most pictures reasonably closely.
We also have some instrumental observations, and many newspaper reports, of
weather conditions. For the 1864–93 period,
Moffett et al. (1998) produced a narrative
weather record centred on northern France.
This was a time when there were not only
storms within long periods of belowfreezing temperatures but also isolated
snowstorms quickly followed by sunny and
warmer conditions. Impressionist pictures
show both. The former commonly mix ice
and snow in a riverine setting, somewhat
suggestive of the Dutch Golden Age. The latter usually show deep snow, often with no
bodies of water present. The weather data
also show that the occurrence of winters
with snow and ice almost ceased after 1880.
Few pictures of frozen conditions were created after that year. The implication is that,
when an artist wishes to create a scene
which looks realistic, whether the scene is
real or imagined and whatever the painterly
style adopted, the artist responds to what is
seen and known, and thus to the contemporary weather and climate.
Conclusions
The winter landscapes painted during the
period between 1400 and 1900 in the Low
Countries show a swing from primarily
snowy conditions early in the period to
times of ice domination during the most
severe phase of the Little Ice Age, and then a
return to snow scenes as the period ended.
Although these paintings are a response to
much more than simply the climatic conditions, they illustrate aspects of the climatic
changes through the Little Ice Age which
have not been considered before. To some
extent the changes reflect the well-established temperature changes during the
period. In particular, the development of ice
thick enough to allow skating requires an
extended cold period. This period appears
to be long enough to dictate the NAO value,
which during the Little Ice Age has a minimum averaging period of one month. Thus
skating scenes commonly occur during periods when the NAO Index is negative.
Snowstorms, however, are synoptic features
which commonly occur on a shorter timescale. The data associated with the
Impressionists suggest that such storms can
occur whether the monthly average NAO
value is negative or positive. But the pictures
themselves may provide clues to the shortterm synoptic situations. Consequently,
more detailed analyses of cloudscapes and
sunlight conditions for a wide range of win-
ter scenes with and without frozen surfaces
may help us to understand the conditions
under which they were painted and the
artistic response to those conditions.
Weather – February 2005, Vol. 60, No. 2
Avercamp, H. (1608) Winter scene with
skaters near a castle. National Gallery,
London, http://www.nationalgallery.
org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/
CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?work
Number=NG1346
Bonacina, L. C. W. (1939) Landscape
meteorology and its reflection in art and
literature. Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc., 65,
pp. 485–497
Boucher, F. (1755) Winter (from The four
seasons). Frick Collection, New York,
http://www.frick.org/html/pntg52f.htm
Bruegel, P. (1565) Hunters in the snow.
Kunsthistorische Museum, Vienna,
http://www.khm.at/staticE/page430.html
Burroughs, W. J. (1981) Winter
landscapes and climatic change. Weather,
36, pp. 352–357
Grimmer, A. (1607) Winter. Koninklijk
Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp,
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/art/g/
grimmer/abel/4winter.jpg
Hurrell, J., Kushnir, Y., Ottersen, G. and
Visbeck, M. (Eds.) (2003) The North
Atlantic Oscillation: Climate significance
and environmental impacts. American
Geophysical Union, Washington, DC
Koekkoek, B. C. (1838) Winter landscape.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, http://www.
rijksmuseum.nl/ariadata/image/SK/ORG/
SK-C-165.org.jpg
Wallace Collection, London, http://www.
wallacecollection.org/c/w_a/p_w_d/d_f/
p/p573.htm
Stemp, R. (2002) Painting the weather. BBC,
London, http://www.bbc.co.uk/
paintingtheweather/
Thornes, J. E. (1999) John Constable’s
skies. University of Birmingham Press
—— (2000) A brief history of weather in
European landscape art. Weather, 55,
pp. 363–375
Van Engelen, A. F. V., Buisman, J. and
IJnsen, F. (2001) A millennium of weather,
winds and water in the Low Countries. In:
Jones, P., Ogilvie, A., Davies, T. and Briffa,
K. (Eds.) History and climate: Memories of
the future?, Kluwer, Dordrecht
Van Ruisdael, J. (1665) Winter landscape.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, http://www.
kfki.hu/~arthp/art/r/ruysdael/jacob/3/
winter_l.jpg
Vermeulen, A. (1800) A scene on the ice.
National Gallery, London, http://www.
nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/
WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/
wa/work?workNumber=NG1850
Von Suchtelen, A. (Ed.) (2001) Holland
frozen in time: The Dutch winter landscape
in the Golden Age. Waanders Publishers,
Zwolle
Ice and snow in paintings
References
Limbourg brothers (c. 1413) February
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National Gallery, London (on loan to the
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Correspondence to: Peter J. Robinson,
Department of Geography, University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
e-mail: [email protected]
© Royal Meteorological Society, 2005.
doi: 10.1256/wea.164.03
Snow on fields opposite the entrance to Kelston Park in the Avon valley between Kelston and Bath, Somerset, looking north up
the slope of Kelston Hill, at 0833 GMT on 27 February 2004. Overnight snow had given way to frost with temperatures several
degrees below freezing. The temperature was hovering around 0 °C at the time. (© Steve Pettifer.)
41