Farm in the Snow (1918 CE)

A farmhouse stands in the snow with a stillness that feels almost absolute. In Julie de Graag’s Boerderij in de sneeuw, the bare poplars, the simplified architecture, and the wide white ground create a winter scene reduced to essentials, yet far from empty. The image holds both calm and austerity, turning an ordinary rural view into a meditation on silence, isolation, and endurance.

A Winter Scene Reduced to Its Essentials

Boerderij in de sneeuw (Farm in the Snow) is a woodcut by the Dutch artist Julie de Graag, created in 1918. The composition shows a solitary farmhouse set within a snow-covered landscape and framed by tall poplars. Its simplified forms and stark contrasts are characteristic of de Graag’s mature style, in which visual economy becomes a source of intensity. Rather than describing winter in elaborate detail, she distills it into a few essential elements, allowing the cold stillness of the scene to dominate.

Nature, Isolation, and the Artist’s Later Years

The print was produced during a difficult period in de Graag’s life, when she was struggling with personal and mental health challenges. Even so, she continued to create works of notable clarity and force. Boerderij in de sneeuw belongs to her later oeuvre, made in the final years of her life before her death in 1924. The year 1918 also marked the end of the First World War, and although the Netherlands remained neutral, the wider atmosphere of uncertainty and withdrawal gives added resonance to works that turn inward toward nature and domestic solitude.

Julie de Graag’s struggles, and her suicide in 1924, are often linked to the melancholic undertone seen in many of her works, including this one. While she was respected within her own artistic circle during her lifetime, broader recognition came largely after her death. This print entered the Rijksmuseum in 1935 through a gift from her family, helping secure a more lasting place for her work within Dutch art history.

Between Dutch Landscape and Modernist Restraint

Boerderij in de sneeuw stands at an interesting meeting point between modernism and the longer tradition of Dutch landscape art. It retains the familiar subject of the rural dwelling in nature, yet de Graag treats that subject with unusual restraint and concentration. The result is both simple and emotionally charged. Her stylized forms and flowing linear rhythm also show an affinity with Art Nouveau, though her version of that language is pared down and unsentimental.

The farmhouse itself may be read as an image of solitude and resilience, set against the severity of winter. In this sense, the print participates in a long symbolic tradition in which the seasons carry emotional and existential meaning. Winter here suggests not only quiet and dormancy, but also exposure, endurance, and mortality.

Printed in Black, Grey, and Snowlight

The work is a woodcut printed in black and grey ink from two separate blocks on paper. The sheet measures 24.2 × 30.0 cm (9.53 × 11.81 inches). This two-block technique allowed de Graag to build a delicate contrast between the dark contours of the trees and farmhouse and the softer grey tones that convey the muffled presence of snow.

From the Artist’s Family to the Rijksmuseum

Boerderij in de sneeuw was donated to the Rijksmuseum in 1935 by G.A. de Graag, a relative of the artist. Since entering the museum, the print has remained in Amsterdam as part of the Rijksmuseum’s public domain collection.