Our 1998 exhibition, Impressionists in Winter, examined
paintings created in the second half of the 1800s, a time of
unusually frigid and snowy weather that attracted plein-air
artists such as Monet, Pissarro, and Sisley. Subtitled Effets de
Neige, or “snow effect”, the show featured many works created
during two of the most severe French winters of that century,
1879-80 and 1890-91. The research for the exhibition resulted in
a weather chronology for the winters between December 1864
through January 1893. Accounts culled from diaries, newspapers
and meteorological publications illustrate a society often
frustrated, nearly paralyzed, by the very same weather events
captured in these paintings: light of inspirational beauty,
heavy skies of rich color, and landscapes dotted by the intrepid
few. An excerpt from ‘Chronique de le Semaine’, Le Presse
Illustré, on December 27, 1874 reports: Well, winter has burst
upon us this week, in all its rigor. Deep snow has covered Paris
for three days; and Paris, under snow,