It’s freezing outside (and inside – did I mention I’m in a super old, steel boat?) so I thought I’d share some of my favourite winter landscapes from the late 18th Century to help make the cold weather feel a bit more beautiful and a bit less brutal.

Ivan Shishkin (1832–1898) – Winter

At the end of the 17th Century, the European climate took a turn for the worse, growing steadily colder well into the second decade of the 19th Century (the 1810s). A series of major volcanic eruptions in 1809 made matters worse, as the clouds of ash produced partially blocked out the sun. In fact, between 1810-1819 England was the coldest she had been in around 200 years.

However, every cloud has a silver lining (in this case, literally), and this this climate shift encouraged the Romantic movement to experiment with a new genre of art: the winter landscape.

Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898) – In The Wild North

Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) – Graveyard Under Snow

Johan Christian Dahl (1788-1857) – Megalithic Tomb In Winter

Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900) – The Icebergs

Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900) – Icebergs And Wreck In Sunset

Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900)- View From Olana In The Snow