Winter Paintings for the Living Room: 8 Classic Snow Scenes to Hang This Season
The best winter paintings for a living room are snow scenes with a visible source of warmth: a village, skaters, a lit window, a low sun. Bruegel's Hunters in the Snow, Monet's The Magpie, Friedrich's Abbey in the Oakwood, Hiroshige's Night Snow and Avercamp's ice scenes all do this, and each suits a different wall, from above the sofa to beside the fireplace.
Cold subjects look best at home when the picture itself carries warmth. A grey winter sky above a bright village, a blue shadow on white snow, a red coat on a frozen pond: painters worked these contrasts out centuries ago, and they still decide whether a snow scene feels cosy or bleak on your wall. The eight paintings below are all in the public domain, all easy to find as prints, and chosen for how they behave in a real room.
1. Bruegel, Hunters in the Snow (1565)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted this panel in 1565 as one of a series on the months of the year. Three tired hunters and their dogs trudge downhill, while below them villagers skate and play on frozen ponds. It is a wide, horizontal picture, which is why it works so well above a sofa. For the full story, read Bruegel's Hunters in the Snow: The First Western Painting in Which Winter Is the Subject Rather Than the Background.
2. Monet, The Magpie (1868-69)
Claude Monet painted a single black-and-white bird on a wooden gate in a Normandy snowfield and made the snow blue, violet and gold. The Salon jury rejected it in 1869. A century and a half later it is the calmest, brightest winter picture in the Impressionist canon, and the best choice for a pale, quiet room.
3. Friedrich, The Abbey in the Oakwood (1809-10)
Caspar David Friedrich's snow is darker. A ruined church, bare oaks and a funeral procession sit under a fading band of evening light. It is a serious picture for a study or a deep-coloured living room, and it pairs naturally with his Monk by the Sea. Read The Abbey in the Oakwood: The Monk's Dark Companion, or see Caspar David Friedrich: Eight Paintings of Solitude for the wider set.
4. Hiroshige, Night Snow at Kambara (c. 1833-34)
Utagawa Hiroshige's print from the Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō shows three travellers in straw coats walking through a silent village under heavy snowfall. The palette is almost only white, grey and black, which makes it one of the easiest winter prints to place in a modern, minimal room. A reader's overview of the tradition is in A Reader's Guide to Japanese Ukiyo-e: From Hokusai to Hiroshige.
5. Kawase Hasui, snow prints of the 1920s and 30s
Kawase Hasui (1883-1957) carried the woodblock tradition into the twentieth century. His snowy temples, bridges and riverside villages at dusk use warm window light against deep blue snow, and the small formats suit a narrow wall beside a window or a bookcase.
6. Avercamp, Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters (c. 1608)
Hendrick Avercamp, a deaf Dutch painter from Kampen, spent his career painting crowds on frozen rivers: skaters, sledges, fishermen and couples flirting on the ice. His pictures reward long looking, so they are ideal for a wall you sit facing, such as the one opposite the sofa. Held in an Amsterdam collection.
7. Pissarro, Hoarfrost (1873)
Camille Pissarro's Hoarfrost shows a farmer carrying wood across a frosty field near Pontoise, with long blue shadows and a low pink sun. It is rural, plain and warm in colour, and it looks good next to wood furniture and natural textiles.
8. Sisley, snow at Louveciennes (1870s)
Alfred Sisley painted the same village street under snow several times in the 1870s. They are soft, grey-blue pictures with small figures, quiet enough to hang in a hallway or beside a reading chair.
How to hang a winter painting at home
Match the shape of the wall to the shape of the picture. Wide scenes such as Bruegel, Avercamp and Friedrich fit above a sofa; tall or square prints such as Hiroshige and Hasui fit between windows. Hang the centre of the picture at about 145 cm (57 in) from the floor, and keep the gap above a sofa to roughly 15-25 cm. For more on scale and height, read Above-Sofa Living Room Wall Art: Six Paintings at the Right Scale and the Right Height.
Warm wood or brass frames soften blue-white snow. Keep the rest of the room in oatmeal, cream or deep green, and the painting will do the seasonal work without any extra decoration. A framed print is also a good Christmas gift for someone who already owns everything: it does not need unwrapping space under the tree, and it stays on the wall after December.
Zocine Art Design is an independent studio that prints classic paintings as wall art.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most famous winter painting?
Pieter Bruegel the Elder's Hunters in the Snow (1565) is usually named first. It is held in Vienna and is the picture most often used to show how painters turned winter into a main subject.
Which winter painting is best above a sofa?
Wide horizontal scenes work best. Bruegel's Hunters in the Snow, Avercamp's ice scenes and Monet's The Magpie all have the proportions to fill the space above a sofa without feeling cramped.
Are classic winter paintings good for Christmas decor?
Yes. They fit December without being specifically festive, so they stay on the wall into January and February.
What colours go with snow scenes?
Warm woods, cream, oatmeal and deep green sit well beside the blues and whites of snow paintings, and a brass or oak frame keeps the picture from looking cold.
Browse Bruegel, Monet and other classic art prints in the archive at Zocine on Etsy.
New in the Journal: Bruegel's Hunters in the Snow: The First Western Painting in Which Winter Is the Subject Rather Than the Background
New in the Journal: Friedrich's The Abbey in the Oakwood (1809-10): The Monk's Dark Companion
New in the Journal: Living Room Classical Art: 7 Prints That Hold a Long Wall
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