...accompanied with the appropriate music ( ).
Pieter Bruegel the Elder : Winter landscape with a bird trap (1565)
Pieter Bruegel the Elder : The Slaughter of The Innocents (1565-1566)
This is more of a religious allegory to the actual events that were happening during the days of the painter's life. By that time, a Spanish army was moving through Flanders and southern Lowlands killing protestant people. Those events triggered what came out to be later the Dutch revolution and the establishment of the state of the Netherlands.
Hendrick Avercamp: Winter landscape (early 16th century)
Hendrick Avercamp: A scene on ice near a town (1615)
As you may have already noticed, most of the Dutch/Flemish landscape paintings of the 15th/16th century have a strong characteristic: They provide a large proportion of the canvas to depict the sky. A foreigner who has never travelled to the Lowlands may not know why would a painter do such a thing. But by the time you come here and walk in the Dutch countryside you understand the reason...the sky dominates more than half of the view. And this may only happen in a vast flatland.
Charles Leickert: A Dutch town in winter (late 19th century)
Jacques Doucet (French): L'hiver hollandais (The Dutch winter) (1948)
Also in the modern times artists have been inspired by the wintry Dutch landscape, although in a bit more abstracted way. I have no idea what is the deeper meaning of the above painting, but I think it conveys in a strange way the frustration you feel while biking at -15 degrees with a chilling wind blowing in your face.
Expats in Eindhoven: Winter view by the Dommel (late 2010)
