Six Scandinavian winter paintings that can help us rethink the season
Winter gets a bad reputation. Bare trees. Long nights. Cold air that makes everything feel slower.
But winter can also be a season of rest and reset. In Wintering (2020), author Katherine May frames winter as a time for retreat and “liminal spaces”, and suggests its starkness can make us notice colours we’d otherwise miss.
In the Nordic countries, “making peace with winter” is not a trend. It’s a skill. Ideas like friluftsliv (outdoor life) and hygge (simple comforts) offer two different, practical ways to live well through the cold months.
Below are six Scandinavian winter artworks, each available as a poster in our catalogue, chosen for how they can shift winter from “something to get through” into something you can actually use.
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- Edvard Munch — Train Smoke (1900): winter as movement, not stillness
- Gustaf Fjæstad — Winter Moonlight (1895): winter as light you can’t get in summer
- Anna Boberg — Northern Lights. Study from North Norway: winter as wonder
- Harald Sohlberg — Winter Night in the Mountains: winter as stillness with strength
- Harald Sohlberg — Street in Røros in Winter: winter as everyday life
- Peder Mørk Mønsted — Winter Day, Charlottenlund Forest: winter as softness, not bleakness
1) Edvard Munch — Train Smoke (1900): winter as movement, not stillness
Munch’s winter is not postcard-pretty. It’s alive.
In Train Smoke, nature and industry share the same air. The train itself almost disappears, while the pale smoke drifts across forest and fjord. That detail matters: winter is not “empty time”. It’s a season where change keeps happening. Quietly, steadily.
If winter makes you restless, this painting reframes that energy. You can be in a slow season and still be moving forward.
2) Gustaf Fjæstad — Winter Moonlight (1895): winter as light you can’t get in summer
Some painters make snow look heavy. Fjæstad makes it glow.
Winter Moonlight is built around a very Nordic idea: darkness can be beautiful when it comes with clear, cold light. The scene is quiet, but it’s not dull. Moonlight turns the snow into something luminous and precise.
This is winter as clarity. A reminder that less daylight can also mean less noise.
3) Anna Boberg — Northern Lights. Study from North Norway: winter as wonder
If you only think of winter as grey, look again.
Boberg’s northern scenes bring in the drama that winter can hold: vast sky, shifting colour, and that sense of nature doing something bigger than us. A “study” can feel immediate, like a moment caught quickly before it changes.
This is winter as awe. Not cosy. Not comfortable. But unforgettable.
4) Harald Sohlberg — Winter Night in the Mountains: winter as stillness with strength
Sohlberg’s winter night is calm, but it isn’t soft.
The mountains stand like a quiet wall. The colour temperature feels cool, even blue, yet the mood is steady, not harsh. This is the kind of winter that teaches patience: nothing is rushed, and nothing needs to perform.
If you want winter to feel less like a problem and more like a space, this is your image.
5) Harald Sohlberg — Street in Røros in Winter: winter as everyday life
Not all winter art has to be “grand landscape”.
In this Røros street scene, winter becomes domestic and human. Snow, buildings, and quiet structure turn cold weather into a lived place, somewhere people actually walk, work, and return home.
This is winter as routine. And routine is often what makes a hard season easier.
6) Peder Mørk Mønsted — Winter Day, Charlottenlund Forest: winter as softness, not bleakness
Mønsted’s winter is all about tone.
Blue-grey light. Fresh snow. Long shadows. Quiet trees repeating into the distance. The palette is restrained, but the scene doesn’t feel “dead”. It feels clean, like the world has been simplified on purpose.
If winter drains you, this painting offers a different story: winter can be gentle.
A small conclusion: winter doesn’t have to be your enemy
Across these six works, winter is not treated as a mistake in the calendar.
It becomes:
- a season of motion (Train Smoke)
- a season of rare light (Winter Moonlight)
- a season of wonder (Boberg’s Northern Lights)
- a season of still strength (Sohlberg’s mountains)
- a season of daily life (Røros street)
- a season of softness and calm (Charlottenlund forest)
If you had to choose one winter mood for your wall: movement, moonlight, aurora, mountains, streets, or forest.
Which would it be?
Sources used in this article:
Munch article
Gustaf Fjæstad article
Anna Boberg article
Anna Boberg article (Finacial Times)
Harald Sohlberg – Winter Night in the Mountains (motiv fra Rondane) article