Those of us on the East Coast of the U.S. have so far been experiencing an unusually mild winter; not so for most of the rest of the Northern Hemisphere. In Europe it must seem as though the North Pole has shifted into your back yard.

For those who need to be reminded of winter’s beauty — for one reason or another, Kunsthaus Zürich has mounted an exhibition titled Winter Tales: Winter in art from the Renaissance to Impressionism.

The exhibition not only collects an interesting assortment of paintings and art objects from various times and places, but goes beyond winter landscapes to subjects as diverse as Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow and Dutch still life paintings that focus on food specific to the season and permitted during a time of abstinence.

The exhibition features Brueghel’s Winter Landscape with Bird Trap, (images above, top), credited was the first independent landscape in European art (i.e. not as a background for religious, mythological or other subjects).

Also featured is Monet’s iconic ode to winter, The Magppie (above, third from bottom).

There is a website devoted to the exhibition that features a slideshow of featured works. The images are linked to larger versions. There is also a catalog of the exhibition, with text in German (more here).

Winter Tales: Winter in art from the Renaissance to Impressionism is on view until 29 April, 2012.

(Images above: Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Jan Asselijn, Jan Davidsz de Heem, Gysbrecht Lytens, Joseph Ferdinand Boissard de Boisdenier, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Akseli Gallen-Kallela)

[Via ArtDaily]

Though he studied for a short time at an atelier in Paris, English painter Samuel John “Lamorna” Birch was mostly a self taught artist.

Birch was one of the earliest of the second wave of “Newlyn School” artists, a group that included Alfred J. Munnings, Stanley Gardner and Laura and Harold Knight.

Birch is often known as simply Lamorna Birch. He took the name from the Lamorna Valley in Cornwall, where he painted frequently. The name was the suggestion of artist Stanhope Forbes, with the thought that it would set Birch apart from the already established artist Lionel Birch who also painted in Newlyn.

In addition to his many paintings of the cove at Lamorna, Birch had a fascination with small streams, in particular in portraying the surface expression of their currents and eddies in a way that puts me in mind of the wonderful Norwegian painter Frits Thaulow.

There is a book about Birch and the artists around him, A Painter Laureate: Lamorna Birch & his Circle, but I don’t think it’s illustrated.

The best online image source I’ve found for Lamorna Birch is the BBC’s Your Paintings. Click on the main images for slightly larger versions.

Juliette Aristides is perhaps most widely known as the author of the highly regarded books Classical Drawing Atelier, Classical Painting Atelier and Lessons in Classical Drawing.

Though the emphasis there is on her undeniably strong figurative work, it is her still life subjects that I personally find most compelling.

In much of her work references appear to the classical masters to whom she has devoted much study. Her still life compositions often play with these references, as well as blurring the lines between still life, room interiors and suggestions of landscape, creating a fascinating juncture point of the various disciplines.

Her still life paintings at their best also convey that almost mystical sense that still life can suggest of the extraordinary within the ordinary — the sense of something more than immediate appearance being revealed by contemplation and mindful observation.

In all of her painting she exhibits beautifully refined control of value and color, her palette at once vibrant and restrained, and a wonderful mastery of edges.

Her website offers several galleries of still life subjects in addition to figurative work, portraits and drawings.

Aristides conducts a Classical Atelier at the Gage Academy of Art in Seattle. There is additional information on her website. The Aristides Atelier also has its own dedicated website and blog.

She also leads workshops in various locations.

Aristides is represented by the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco, where her work will be featured in an exhibition on view from February 10 to March 12, 2012.

These seems to be an unofficial school of painting that included a number of post-Impressionist artists who specialized in painting views of Belle Époque Paris, and took particular interest in contrasting the browns and grays of buildings and overcast skies with the warm yellow and orange glow of windows lit by gaslight.

These included Eugene Galien-Laloue, Edouard-Léon Cortès, Luigi Loir, and somewhat later, Antoine Blanchard.

Cortès was perhaps the best known of them. His paintings of Paris, that often include famous monuments and places in the city, were popular in his time and his work continues to be in demand. Though his contrast of city lights and backgrounds that seem primed to showcase them to best advantage can seem a bit artifical at times, there is an undeniable visual charm to the way he lays out his compositions and in his bold renderings in brilliant patches and splashes of color.

Cortès was born within 20 miles of Paris, studied initially with his father, who was a a painter for the Spanish Royal Court, and later at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Cortès took inspiration from both classical and Impressionist styles, as well as his contemporary “painters of Paris”.

He frequently revisited the same subjects, and even the same viewpoints, painting the scenes in different light and weather conditions, and often painted the City of Lights reflected in its own rain-wet streets and sidewalks.

Perhaps the best online source for Cortès’ images is the the past lots selections of Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions, which are often zoomable to high resolution.

There is a good selection on Wikipaintings, with good size enlargements. Though smaller, a nice quick overview can be had at Encore Editions, and a more extensive selection, along with biographical background, can be found on Rehs Galleries (and here and here).