Χωριάτικο Σπίτι με ανεμόμυλο

000068 P. L. Wichstein(;), Cottage house with windmill, n.d., oil on canvas, 50 × 58 cm

From the time the Limbourg brothers painted The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry (Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, 1410-11) and especially after Peter Brueghel the Elder painted his winter landscapes in the 1560s, winter-inspired subjects remained extremely popular in European art, especially in German and Flemish art. It is from this long tradition that the unknown 19th-century painter who produced this particular painting emerges and to which he wishes to belong. The painting depicts a central European city in the winter. The first level is dominated by the frozen riverbed. Several people are walking on ice skates, while a young man appears to be sitting on a sled. In the background, the small stone bridge leaves no doubt that this serpentine path is nothing but a frozen river. A windmill dominates the painting and, further back, a city. The painting, in terms of composition, design and tonal scale, shows that the artist's inspiration draws from Dutch painting of the 17th and early 18th centuries. And his aim was to create an idyllic image of winter, emphasizing to games played on ice.