The painting can be seen in the existential sense. Mägi’s oeuvre is devoted programmatically solely to summer scenes. The landscapes are lush and always green, we never see bare trees, twigs, snow covered ground, nature in the process of decline, dormancy; we do not see the seasonal cycle and the full cycle of life. Looking at Mägi’s body of paintings as a whole, we notice how starting from the second half of the 1910s he projects his fear of death and maybe the death urge – into a number of southern Estonian paintings, but in the broader existential plan, he does not want to deal with the presence of death – it’s as if it doesn’t exist in nature or anywhere. This sort of passionate engagement with the life force becomes oppressive at some point; it stands out and makes one ask whether the depiction of endless summer and denial of winter is really merely aesthetic or is it a case of compensating for something traumatic and sublimating fears?

The wintry still life, giving us a sense that life has ceased for an instant, is therefore a rare example not only of the contrast of the seasons or moods conveyed, but also in the existential sense.

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