“Winter is said to be also wonderfully splendid here and not (at times) very cold,” wrote Mägi in the heart of summer 1908 from Norway. Konrad Mägi painted winter only a couple of times, both times in Norway.

Horizontal wide bands guide the viewer’s gaze towards the horizon. Zones are formed behind each other, where the transitions from one zone to another are quite clear, sometimes even abrupt. However, unlike in summer views, there is one component that binds the zones together here – white snow. The typically bright and colourful landscape characteristic of Mägi is covered this time with a white veil.

Why did Mägi paint winter so rarely? Was it because he sought life in nature, and it is harder to perceive it in winter? Yet, there is plenty of light here, the trees are only partly bare, and a spring is bubbling in the lower left corner.

Or did painting the white surface not interest Mägi as much as contemplating the colourful summer landscape, which excited the senses more? Why then did Mägi abandon colours in this painting? Where we would expect details and a celebration of colour, there is instead a uniform, barren field, almost nothingness, as if the artist had voluntarily left his most important tools behind the door. Or why did Mägi avoid depicting the cycle of the seasons in his work? Why did he cling so tightly to summer views and avoid winter, where nature seems to be dead: leafless branches, the decline of nature, the ground buried under snow? Was he afraid of something? Was he waiting for something?

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