A View from the Vault: L’Hiver (Winter)
by Amanda Zehnder, Chief Curator and Head, Museums
As winter settles in, bringing with it the chill of biting winds and swirling snowflakes, few images capture the season’s stark beauty and harsh realities like L’Hiver (Winter)—sometimes called Winter in Paris, a striking and famous print by French artist Félix Buhot. Created in 1879, this work immerses viewers in a frozen Paris.
Known for his exceptional mastery of printmaking, Buhot crafted L’Hiver with precision and flair. The print is a visual symphony, composed of multiple vignettes framed by delicate borders that draw attention to the many facets of modern Parisian life. The largest scene, placed at the upper right, showcases a newly constructed boulevard, its wide expanse marked by two Morris columns, which stand tall as symbols of urban modernization. These columns, often used to display posters and advertisements, anchor the composition in the rapidly changing city.
Félix Hilaire Buhot (French, 1847 – 1898)
L’Hiver (Winter), 1879
etching and drypoint on paper
Museums Collections
Amid the swirling snow, Buhot captures the rhythms of city life, from pedestrians bundled against the cold to the hasty movements of carriages and horses. The people in the scene—ranging from a fashionable woman and child to hardworking street sweepers—embody the diverse social fabric of Paris. Dogs, positioned centrally, provide a visual metaphor for the city’s class disparities. While a delicate poodle prances alongside its owner, a scruffy street dog struggles against the elements, offering a stark contrast to the more privileged animals and humans around it.
But it’s in the smaller vignettes that Buhot’s true mastery comes to light. To the left, the grim realities of winter unfold as we see overworked horses succumbing to the cold. These poignant images evoke a sense of empathy, reminding viewers of the hardships endured by both humans and animals during the harsh winter months.
Buhot’s L’Hiver is not just a portrayal of a season; it’s a snapshot of a moment in time, where progress and suffering coexist in the heart of a modernizing city. It’s a print that invites us to pause and reflect on the beauty of winter’s stillness while acknowledging the struggles that lie beneath the surface. As the cold winds blow through our own streets, Buhot’s work is a reminder of winter’s quiet power and its ability to reveal both the elegance and the challenges of life.
“A View from the Vault” showcases some of the unique, notable or rare items that are a part of the Special Collections and Museums holdings at the University of Delaware. Each month, we highlight a different work and share interesting facts or intriguing histories about it. If you are interested in seeing any of the materials featured in person or want to learn more about any work showcased in the series, please contact Special Collections and Museums at AskSpec or AskMuseums.