About this artwork

Courbet first started to paint snow scenes in the winter of 1856-57, but it was only in the 1860s that he developed a strong interest in this theme. He was no doubt inspired by the countryside of his native Franche-Comté, which suffered particularly heavy falls of snow in the winter of 1866-67. The foreground motif of two beech trees recurs in a number of paintings by Courbet from 1858-66. It is highly probable that this picture shows an imagined, rather than a real landscape, in which favourite landscape elements such as the beech trees were reused. Courbet’s snow scenes were a source of inspiration to the Impressionists, notably Sisley, Monet and Pissarro.

Updated before 2020

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  • artist:
    Gustave Courbet (1819 - 1877) French
  • title:
    Trees in the Snow
  • date created:
    About 1865
  • materials:
    Oil on canvas
  • measurements:
    72.30 x 91.50 cm; Framed: 96.50 x 114.80 x 11.00 cm
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Presented by Sir Alexander Maitland in memory of his wife Rosalind, 1960
  • accession number:
    NG 2234
  • gallery:
  • subject:
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Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet