French School, 17th century
Allegory of Winter
Oil on panel, painted on both sides

Unsigned. 23 x 18 inches (58.5 x 45.5 cm), the frame 30 x 25 inches (76 x 63.5 cm). Moulded wood frame, painted on the back. Vertical splits through the panel and scattered paint losses.

An upright post cuts the panel in two. On the left an old man in a red fur-trimmed cap and a long robe sits by an open fire with his hands held out to it, a leaded window behind him. On the right the ground falls away into snow under a pale sky.

The outdoor half is crowded with small figures at winter work. One climbs a ladder into a bare tree, another carries cut branches on his back, a man in yellow swings an axe at the foot of the slope, and his neighbor goes down on the frozen ground beside him. Higher up a figure stands over a small fire whose smoke curls away, and thatched houses close the top of the view. The only warm notes on that side are the reds of their caps and breeches.

The back of the panel is a second picture, a dark wooded landscape with a house and small figures, held in a frame painted to imitate grained wood.