The Magic of Snow - Winter Landscape paintings by Louis Apol

Louis Apol was born in 1850 in The Hague. He started his artistic education with drawing lessons from Johannes Franciscus Hoppenbrouwers and Pieter Stortenbeker, later he studied for six years at the Academy in The Hague. His artistic talent was discovered very early. At the age of 18 he was invited to exhibit at the Triennial Exhibition in The Hague, where three years later he received a royal grant. His painting "A January Evening in the Haagse Bosch" was purchased by the government in 1875 for the Rijksmuseum collection.

'' A January Evening in the Haagse Bosch '', oil on canvas , Image Source

'' A Winter Landscape '', oil on canvas , Image Source

There are not many other painters who are so much associated with winter as Louis Apol. His snowy landscapes, however, deviate significantly from those of his predecessors Andreas Schelfhout, Charles Leickert, Frederik Marinus Kruseman and Hoppenbrouwers, who worked in the tradition of the romantic school. While the winter scenes of these older contemporaries were usually richly decorated with skaters, sleighs and koek-en-zopie stalls, figures were much less important to Apol. The emphasis was on nature itself, grand and silent, with a lot of attention for mood and light. This made Apol a true impressionist.

'' A River in Winter '', oil on canvas , Image Source

Louis Apol chose his motives not only in the surroundings of his hometown, in the Hague Forest. In 1880 he took part in an expedition over Spitsbergen to Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean. The impressions gained there, which he hold in numerous sketches, had inspired him his whole life. It was not so much the winter as the snow that fascinated him most. His winter landscapes are almost always snowy landscapes, only decorated with a bridge, a castle or a stone gate. In addition to warm white and gray tones, Apol also used subtle color accents.

'' Karmakuli, Nova Zembla '', gouache on paper , Image Source

'' A Snowy Lane in The Hague '', oil on canvas , Image Source

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