Before Spring

Flat lowland landscape, open and far perspective, in all probability painted from nature, realistic in style, no staffage. Field furrows covered with short dark green grass in the foreground, balks running away towards the horizon. Ditches filled with the occasional dirty-grey patch of thawing snow convey the atmosphere of the work’s title. In the background, fields are closed off with scarce leafless shrubbery and birches, possibly concealing a sandy road beyond. A wall of pine forest is visible against the horizon; landscape topped with sky with grey clouds, layered, thick and horizontal. A flock of high-flying birds is the only suggestion of motion in the overall scene, which otherwise seems frozen in time. Considerable care for foreground detail, short brush strokes in the grass, distinct shrubbery branches; other painting sections rendered in contours, the colour tone dark (whites with greys and dark browns, dark olive green) to convey the atmosphere of spring coming soon.