Love of Winter

In January 1914 George Bellows wrote to a friend, “There has been none of my favorite snow. ” Soon after, on February 13, a major blizzard hit New York City, inspiring the artist to paint Love of Winter. He used bright reds, yellows, and greens to intensify the winter scene and broad, slashing brushstrokes to convey movement, wind, and speed.

The energetic group of skaters and onlookers, composed of people of a range of ages and social classes, reflects the diverse populations who enjoyed the public parks and the leisure activities they offered in early 20th-century New York City.

Executed in Oil on canvas, measuring 81.6 × 101.6 cm (32 1/2 × 40 1/2 in.), the surface rewards close looking. George Wesley Bellows builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward.

Look closely and the painting opens up. Objects you might pass over — a folded letter, a half-drawn curtain, the angle of a glance — were placed to be read. Cupids, mirrors, and flowers are not decoration; they signal desire, vanity, and the swift passage of beauty.

Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago now holds the work, where conservators and historians continue to revisit its condition and attribution. Each generation of scholarship adds a layer to how George Wesley Bellows's output from this period is understood.

“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”