In the Bleak Midwinter

We feel a chill in the air and instinctively know it’s time to withdraw… inside, out of the inevitable cold and dark that will envelop people and nature for the winter months. Come in out of the cold to appreciate the ways in which artists find profound beauty in their experiences of nature at rest and in the silent stillness of the season.

Using works from the MMFA’s permanent collection, this selection of prints and a painting show us how an artist might depict this frosty season—whether on hillsides covered with snow or in cities whose very buildings’ edges seem sharpened by the icy air. Some, like Charles Burchfield’s magnificent Arctic Owl and Winter Moon (right), tell us about the sighting of a beautiful bird on a moonlit night, made all the more magical by the blinding white of both the owl and the snow that surrounds it.