An oil painting on wooden panel depicting a winter landscape, signed in red in the lower right corner “Léo Schnug” (1878-1933). A snow covered mountainside is the setting for a thatched cottage in the midst of a hectic environment. A figure can be seen climbing the slope with the help of poles. He is alone in the face of difficult conditions, the mountain, the wind, the snow.
The painting is subject to a great dynamism rendered by several elements. The diagonals of the slope and the clod of earth converge on the left, where two conifers take root. This creates a triangle that opens up to the mountain’s ascent. In addition, the colors are strongly contrasting. The whites of the snow, the ochres and blacks of the mountain and the trees, and the blue grays of the threatening sky accentuate the dramatic character of the scene. Finally, the small, rapid, juxtaposed strokes give a strong impression of gusts of wind.
This painting is part of a theme often taken up by Léo Schnug, of the lonely man embedded in “hilly slopes, castles, tormented landscapes, chaos”1. Here, the figure is situated in a snowy landscape, which is rare in Schnug’s work, especially in oil painting.
1) cf. Marie-Christine BREITENBACH-WOHLFAHRT, Léo Schnug ou l’image retrouvée, Strasbourg, 1997, p.28.
Period : around 1910
Frame dimensions :
Height : 40 cm
Width : 30 cm
View dimensions :
Height : 33,5 cm
Width : 23,5 cm
Condition : good
