March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. – English proverb
Susan here. So goes the saying, promising that the crazy weather of March will eventually lead to balmy spring days filled with flowers and sunshine. Here in the northern hemisphere, March often brings winds clouds, sun, chilly days, and sometimes snow. Yet the hyacinths and daffodils are starting to come up already, even though today, it’s rain and high winds again where I live. But we can be pretty sure winter is all but done and spring is on its way.
Here’s a collection of art images in honor of the coming season and in honor of March, from Monet to neoclassical sculpture, including some incredible renderings of wind, never easy to portray in painting or sculpture. Enjoy!
Monet, Spring, 1872, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. I recently saw this beautiful little Monet again at the Walters Gallery, and up close, it’s every bit as gorgeous and evocative of springtime as it looks. Monet was a master at capturing the seasons with color and texture and evocative light. Here we can almost feel the warmth of the sun, the scent of flowers and new grass, and a hint of soft, fresh breezes and scudding clouds.
Monet’s gorgeous depiction of Mme. Monet and her son on a windy hill in springtime (it might be summer, but who can resist those breezy brushstrokes!) … now in the National Gallery, Washington DC. This painting is stunning up close, and filled with the sense of fresh breezes and sunlight.
Another Monet to bring us into spring! Monet’s depiction of a hillside in springtime, 1873, Johannesburg Art Gallery. He produced hundreds of views of trees, meadows, and other landscape views in quick studies and more finished work, always with the immediacy of technique that is a hallmark of his style and the Impressionist movement. This one puts you right on the hillside, climbing up beside the flowering bush.
John William Waterhouse, Pre-Raphaelite artist, was a master of atmosphere and romance—and here, wind. He seems to have particularly loved the challenge of rendering moving air in paint, and captured beautiful arcs, curves, and shapes in his airy subjects, depicting wind’s effect on drapery as it takes on forms of its own. This is Boreas (the North Wind), 1903 (listed as private collection). It’s exquisite, and one of my favorite paintings.
Waterhouse, Windflowers, 1902 (another in a private collection). Here he plays again with a favorite motif – airy beauty, spring winds, draperies, breezes playing with the girl’s hair, and the challenge of conveying the very real sense of fresh air and springtime.
Thomas Ridgeway Gould, West Wind (Zephyr), marble, 1876, in Rochester. Depicting an invisible wind and the sense of the body moving against the push of the air is handled with imagination and skill. What Gould does with stone here is miraculous!
A collection of breezy springtime images needs this one too — Pierre Auguste Cot’s The Storm, 1880, Metropolitan Museum, NY. The billowing, whipping fabrics are fabulously rendered.
Vincent Van Gogh is another artist fascinated by springtime subjects. He painted numerous versions of orchards and trees in blossom in spring, studying the colors, the light, the movement of breezes through trees. Here’s White Orchard, 1888, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.
This is one of my favorite springtime paintings – Van Gogh’s Almond Blossoms, 1890, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Almond blossoms were one of his favorite subjects – he painted several versions in studies and finished paintings. This one was meant as a gift for his brother, painted the year Vincent died.
Spring is coming! What do you look forward to most in springtime?
I love that the earth feels like it is waking up. As usual, you have included some beautiful artwork.
Thanks, Mary! I love how these artists found ways to evoke how March winds do blow!
Wonderful images, Susan! I particularly like the Waterhouses and Gould sculpture. Incredible technique.
I love these works of art especially Waterhouse. One of my favorite things to see in the Spring is all the flowering trees & bushes. I’m smiling just thinking about it!
What a lovely post, Susan, and what a selection of wonderful pieces by talented artists! Two things I particularly appreciate about spring are blooming flowers and fewer grey and gloomy days.
Thank you, Susan. Your post is filled with so much beauty. In springtime I look forward to the blooms of tulips that many buildings plant around the trees along the streets of NYC. Central Park is so lovely to experience, as well.
Other parks in the city have all sorts of flowers and plants. It’s so good to see it.
Thanks for the lovely pictures. You have made my day.
What beautiful art you’ve chosen for this post, Susan! And it feels particularly appropriate because here in New England we have been having very strong wind for the last two weeks – I feel I have not looked nearly as picturesque being blown across streets and parking lots, holding on to my hat. But our hyacinths are up 2 inches, which is always our first, and my favorite, sign of spring!
What beautiful pieces you shared with us, Susan. Thank you! It’s the first time I’ve seen many of them, and they’re extraordinary. I’m looking forward to the wind dying down a bit myself, so that we can enjoy those few halcyon days when we need neither the heat nor the air conditioning and can enjoy the fresh air before all the bugs arrive!
Oh susan, I loved your post! The art work you chose is just beautiful, fun and cheerful!
Interesting bit, my iPad cover is Van Gogh’s Almond Blossoms and i though it was an Asian drawing!(there is nkthing to identify the design on the cover itself). Who knew Van Gogh did such traditional art? 😊
I look forward to all the flowers and their various colors and the trees blossoming, particularly the dogwoods, the lilacs, the apple blossoms and oh so many others!
Also reading outside by the water. I used to love riding my bicycle, alas not able to anymore.
What do I look forward to? Birdsong. Spring arrivals and summer residents (bird wise). Anticipation – watching the world green up. All the shades of green layered one on top of the other. The wonderful smells of spring blooms. Plus of course warmer temperatures that tempt you out of you winter cocoon. The joy of watching tender little green things germinate and emerge to grow into big flowering plants as the seasons pass.
Those are great examples of wind in painting and stone. It always amazes me when someone can capture something so ephemeral as wind and you can actually see it in a painting and in such a solid substance as a sculpture. Thanks for this lovely post.
Thanks for sharing this beautiful art. It’s been extremely windy and cold during the first part of March, here in New Jersey, so I hope it becomes more lamblike soon, I haven’t seen a single crocus or daffodil yet!