Winter landscapes

Winter landscapes were particularly attractive to artists such as Sisley, Pissarro and Monet, because of the challenge of capturing the quality of the light and of mastering shadows. For the Impressionists, shadows were not colourless, nor were they simply dark.

Snow scenes were an ideal motif for Impressionists: the softening and blurring of forms and the dense atmosphere required a muted palette to capture the myriad tones of reflected light and the softened contours of the landscape.