Louis Apol was famous for his winter scenes. This painting is a rare small example of his skills. Most of his paintings are larger.
Louis Apol had his breakthrough at the age of 24 with a winter landscape on an exhibition of living masters in Amsterdam where he already exhibited since he was 16. His winter paintings were such a success and so real that he was invited to paint on the scientific expedition of the ship Willem Barendsz to Nova Zembla in the summer of 1880.
All the watercolors and drawings he made on this journey were a great source of inspiration throughout his career. He painted a panorama of Nova Zembla with a stuffed polar bear and wooden huts near the zoo Artis in Amsterdam. This panorama was on view for many years and a great success.
For his forest- and other winter scenes he used photos of snow and snowy landscapes. These photos were used frequently witness the many fingerprints on the pictures. His photo’s gave him the capacity to paint snow very natural in all its gradations. Drifts against some reeds, snow lying on a pole or on a branch. Trampled snow on a path, even in this small painting are all these different types of snow painted to perfection.
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