Winter — from The Seasons

Mucha personified the four seasons as four women, and in doing so half-invented the look we still call Art Nouveau — the sinuous line, the halo-like arch, the ornament that seems to grow. His Winter cradles a small bird against the cold, wrapped and hooded amid bare, frost-touched branches, serene rather than bleak. The 1896 Seasons panels were among the most popular decorative prints ever made, and they read as beautifully today: seasons not as landscapes but as moods, worn like a gown. One of a set of four.

Maker

Alphonse Mucha (1860 to 1939)

Date

1896

Medium of the original

Painting

Original held by

Published Paris

Credit

Published Paris · via Wikimedia Commons

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00599