Winter Tales

The depiction of winter, the most surprising of all the seasons, has fascinated man ever since a cold breeze chased Adam and Eve from their comfortable Garden of Eden. The exhibition shows the impact of winter on European art, primarily on painting but also sculpture and the decorative arts, from the late Middle Ages to the present. Winter has served as a great inspiration for major artists, it is a surprisingly colourful and varied season, and it continues to fascinate modern artists such as Beuys and Kiefer.

After a prelude focusing on the depiction of the Seasons in the Middle Ages, the exhibition starts with the story of the birth of the winter-landscape in Flanders during the 1560s, and continues with the development of the winter genre up to the present, with a special focus on winter landscapes from Holland’s Golden Age, German Romanticism and French Impressionism. In addition to landscapes, winter is also reflected in art in various other ways, such as allegories, portraits, still lifes, genre & animal paintings.

Among the major artists featured in the exhibition are Pieter Bruegel, Hendrick Avercamp, Jacob Ruisdael, Jan van Goyen, William Turner, Francisco de Goya, Caspar David Friedrich, Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, Camille Pissarro, Edvard Munch, and Anselm Kiefer, but also Peter Paul Rubens and Sir Joshua Reynolds. The size of the show is approximately 150 paintings and a number of objects (sculptures, tapestries, porcelain, ivories, silver), with Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States as the main lenders.