The Eastern Station Under The Snow 1917

Maximilien Luce painted The Eastern Station Under The Snow with oil on canvas, and just look at that flurry! The dabs and dashes of white, they make it hard to focus, don’t they? It’s like trying to see through a snow globe. That’s part of the magic here. Up close, each little stroke is its own thing, a tiny decision. But step back, and they all come together to make this bustling scene. The texture of the paint, it’s not smooth, it’s got a real physicality, like the snow itself. The colors are muted, mostly grays and browns, but then you get these pops of red and blue, like the uniforms, they jolt you awake. There’s a smear of white right in the middle, like a streetlamp glowing, and it kind of anchors the whole painting. It reminds me of the way Pissarro would capture the energy of Paris. Luce isn’t just showing us a station, he’s giving us a feeling.