Winterlandschap 1900 - 1917

William James Mullins made this small, dreamy painting, Winterlandschap, at a time when photography was starting to take off. The muted tones are so still and subtle! I wonder if he had photography on his mind, and how it might have felt to be a painter at that time. I’m really moved by the way Mullins captures the quiet essence of a winter landscape, that feeling when the world is hushed under a blanket of snow, and the trees become these delicate, almost ghostly figures on the horizon. The way the light catches on the tips of the grasses, barely visible, is a wonderful reminder of nature’s quiet beauty. It’s like Mullins is trying to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Painters are always responding to and riffing off each other, and here, Mullins seems to be having a visual conversation with the Impressionists, who were also interested in capturing light and atmosphere.