Fritz von Uhde (German, 1848-1911) painted "Christmas Eve: Winter Landscape" in 1890.
Mary leans against a farm fence on a winter night. A delicate halo floats above her head. Joseph has left her alone for the moment as he heads through the snow to find a place to stay.
The painting appears online in a couple different versions. This one appears grayer and softer.
Fritz von Uhde combined his practice of plein-air painting with his devotion to spiritual subjects. He said, "Many of the French artists wished to find the light in Nature. I wished to find the light within the figure that I was presenting."
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Fritz von Uhde on Wikipedia
5 comments:
Love the "blue" version. Great example of a small area of visual interest (the figure in the upper left) counterbalancing the whole composition.
Both are nice, but the Blue Version seems to guide my eye through the narrative presented. Mary's glow included.
Merry Christmas James & all Gurney Journey readers!
Merry Christmas and thank you for all these interesting and illuminating blog items over the year.
The grayer, softer version is a different painting. Is it the same artist (maybe a preliminary painting)?
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