Santa Trinità dei Monti in the Snow

Snow rarely falls on Rome, which is exactly why this small painting exists. French artist André Giroux made it in 1822 while studying in Italy, and he caught a morning when a thin layer of white had settled over the church and convent of Santa Trinità dei Monti, the building that rises above the famous Spanish Steps. The tall obelisk on the right still stands in that same spot today. Scattered across the snowy grounds, a handful of tiny figures help show just how massive these stone structures really are.

Giroux was part of a wave of young painters who had started carrying their oils outdoors instead of staying shut inside a studio. The idea was to record light and weather as they actually appeared, and a snowy Roman morning was a gift too strange to pass up. The cool blues and grays draped over those warm sand-colored walls show how much he enjoyed the odd contrast. Rather than aiming for something dramatic, he gave us a plain and truthful record of an ordinary place caught in an extraordinary moment.