Winter Wonderland

These winter landscapes reunite the spirit with a calm gratitude through the contemplation of nature. The artists in this collection captured either the sublime solitude of winter or the radiating warmth of the holidays, as seen in the picturesque qualities of romantic landscapes.

Join us on a guided walk through a winter wonderland, in which artists become our tour guides. Highlights from the collection include such artists as Bill Cramer, Emanuel A Petersen, Robert Pilot and Michael Hermesh.

Emanuel A Petersen (1894-1948) was a prolific painter, and during his career he made several trips to Greenland to paint its extraordinary landscape and light. Through numerous exhibitions around Europe, Petersen illustrated the magic of the Arctic to Europe. Specifically, he focused on conquering the unknown territories of Greenland. In his time, anthropology was burgeoning in Europe, and such artists participated in ‘discovering’ remote territories under a colonial gaze. The backdrop of impressive sunsets illuminating ice fields inspired Peterson to occasionally break from documentation, exploding into expressions of Romanticism.

Exhibiting in the first exhibition of the Group of Seven, Robert Pilot (1898 – 1967) was one of three artists who declined joining the Group upon its formation in 1920. He loved painting images of Canadian scenes and its people, but did not share the Group’s adoration of its savage wilderness. In contrast to Petersen, Pilot’s subjects are often cityscapes, snapshots of townships and city living.

Despite growing up in balmy southern California, American artist, Bill Cramer, displays a mastery of how shadow plays with the colour of snow. Staying in shadow, the glimpse of winter is backdropped by a canyon as the sun creeps forward. The contemporary artist boasts multiple awards for his impressions of the West, recently The Landscape Award of Excellence 2020 from the Oil Painters of America, and Prescott Plein Air Best of Show Award 2020.

Canadian artist, Michael Hermesh, brings a macabre criticism of ecological negligence. Entitled, “The Last of the Snowman,” his work displays the ferryman of Hades carrying souls into the underworld, with no snowman in tow. He seems to imply that the snowman has melted, a product of global warming, melting from the boat, and joining the still waters composing the River Styx.  Hermesh’s often political works remind us that these treasured, snowy landscapes are in need of protection.

Through the artist’s documentation of landscape, we are privy to the ideologies of the era. As we transition from the colonial adventurer to the ecological prognosticator, our once expansive winter wonderland is quickly becoming finite and precious.