Winter sun

A snow-covered forest opens up to catch the low winter sun in this scene by Walter Moras, a German painter who spent his career in Berlin around the turn of the twentieth century. Tall pines heavy with snow crowd the edges of the clearing, their dark trunks streaked with orange where the light hits them. Beyond, gentle hills melt into a pale, misty haze, and the snow itself picks up soft washes of pink and gold from the sinking sun. The whole picture feels still and cold, like a walk through the woods on a clear afternoon in deep winter.

Moras painted in a realist style and returned often to the changing seasons, but snowy landscapes such as this one, made in 1900, seem to have been closest to his heart. Nothing about the work tries to impress or surprise. Instead it settles for something quieter, showing an ordinary winter day exactly as it looked, with all its hush and chill. That plainspoken honesty is really the point, and it rewards anyone willing to linger a while in the calm.