Hunters in the Snow

Three weary hunters trudge home through deep snow with their dogs and a single thin catch, cresting a hill that looks down on a frozen valley where villagers skate and play on the ice. Bruegel painted this as part of a series on the months of the year, of which several survive; this panel stands for the dead of winter. The bare black trees, the jagged peaks borrowed from the Alps, and the muffled grey-green light make it one of the most enduring images of winter in Western art. Its companions The Harvesters and Haymaking are also in this collection.