Art Explained by a Writer: Night 1880

'What do you think? Is winter finally over? Are we heading into spring, and will we never have to go ice fishing again?'

I’ve no idea, said Frits, whose shoes were squelching through the melted snow. He’d always hated the cold and wet feet. He certainly had no intention of spending his life in the cold country where he was born.

‘They say the temperature on Earth is rising because we breathe too much,’ the fisherman panted, out of breath as he carried his fishing gear.

Frits snorted. He didn’t think it necessary to reply. Inwardly, he cursed the drivel; that man’s mouth never seemed to stop moving. He tried to gather his thoughts. He couldn’t care less about the weather, let alone the change. It was certainly not the first time, nor would it be the last, that it would thaw or freeze. Nature did its thing and followed its own rhythm, regardless of what people wanted, decreed or predicted.

Whilst the fisherman chattered on incessantly, greeting others and scrutinising their lives, Frits stood still. He took in the scene before him with keen attention. Melting snow, light burning inside while the man arrives home, a horse waiting patiently after a long day of work. One day he would paint this night. Not because of the endless chatter, not because it brought about a change in the world, but because it is precisely the ordinary things to which people are accustomed that are never special enough to be preserved for posterity.

'In 20 years or 100 years, people will see whether the world has actually changed', he muttered, 'or whether they are simply suffering from amnesia and swallowing all the nonsense hook, line and sinker.'

_{Painting: Night 1880 (1880) - public domain
Painter: Frits Thaulow - Norway
15-5-2026
The contest Art & Writing is hosted by @solperez. Pick one of the three paintings she shows and write about it.}