Pieter van Veen (American, born the Netherlands, 1875-1961)
First Snow
Date: ca. 1914
Medium: Oil on canvas
Object Dimensions: 15 x 21 3/16 in. (38.1 x 53.82 cm)
Credit Line: Founding Collection, Gift of Charles and Emma Frye, 1952.179
Photo Credit: Jueqian Fang
Verbal Description: This is a painting of a winter day. The clear, pastel blue sky takes up about three-quarters of the composition and a flat landscape occupies the bottom quarter. Two steel-colored, meandering rivers flank either side of a snow-covered path that dissects the ground vertically into two equal halves. Moving from left to right along the horizon line: a golden triangle of long grasses line the wider of the two rivers and a sliver of gold lines the right bank. At the center is the snow-covered path moving back towards the horizon line. A dark shape off in the distance has just enough details to see that it’s a figure. Just beyond this traveling figure is a light gray rhombus, likely the roof of a house. Moving further to the right along the horizon line are three leafless trees, all about the same height, poking above another house. The second river runs next to this structure with the same golden strips along either side. At the right side of this bank, touching the right side of the painting, is another building. It’s closer than the others. There are no windows, it has dark gray walls and a light gray roof.
