According to old beliefs, if the sun shines on this date, or if the groundhog sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. Stoke the fire and enjoy the "poetic beauty" of Birge Harrison's Winter Sunset.
"If Candlemas Is Fair and Clear, There'll Be Two Winters in the Year."
According to old beliefs, if the sun shines on this date, or if the groundhog sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. Stoke the fire and enjoy the "poetic beauty" of Birge Harrison's Winter Sunset.
Once titled Winter in Brittany by an art dealer eager to cater to buyers' desire for all things French, this painting is now thought to have been painted in New England or Quebec. Birge Harrison believed it was a painter's duty to "transmit to picture-lovers … the emotions and the impressions of strength and power or of poetic beauty which have come to us direct from nature."
Source: Joann Moser. American Impressionism: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).
Pictured: Birge Harrison, 1854–1929, Winter Sunset, about 1890, oil on wood, 15 1/4 x 23 3/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.