Winter Landscape

There are relatively few landscapes by Edward Mateusz Römer (1848–1900) in collections in Lithuania. Winter landscape falls into the category of ‘landscape of mood’ that was popular in the late 19th century. Römer was introduced to the principles of landscape painting as a student at the Academy of Fine Art in Munich (1869–1878). Adherents of this trend not only sought to render the characteristic details of a landscape with absolute precision, but through views of nature, they sought to express certain emotions reflecting both the state of mind of the artist and the spirit of the place. The subject is not a prominent piece of architecture or history; the artist selects an ordinary, apparently mundane view. The choice of theme was not entirely random, however. Winter landscape shows the spacious yard of the Römer house in Vilnius, at the crossroads of Bokšto and Savičiaus streets. We know of another view of the same yard painted in the winter of 1893 (reproduced in 1913 in Litwa i Ruś [Lithuania and Russia]). Winter landscape could have been painted the same year. The artist succeeded in recreating the mood of a city deep in snow and silence. The silhouettes of trees and houses, emerging softly from the silvery, foggy background, seem to have lost all materiality and substance, and are immersed in the world of visions and dreams. Text author Rūta Janonienė.