Artist: Bruno Liljefors (1860–1939)
Title: English: Winter landscape with bullfinches
Date: 1891
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: height: 40 cm (15.7 in); width: 50 cm (19.6 in)
What I love about this painting:
This is a Christmas card kind of scene, and I’m sure I have seen it featured on many cards over the years. However, the birds are what attracted me to this painting. Birds of all varieties enthrall me, and these birds are gorgeous.
I love the colors of these bullfinches, love the natural way they are shown roosting in the shrubbery. These birds are European and are different from the bright yellow goldfinches I know here in the Pacific Northwest.
My childhood home had begun its life as a one room hunting cabin that had been converted to a mid-century rambler and turned into a family home in the 1950s. It was situated on a large stretch of beach on the southeastern shore of Black Lake near Olympia, Washington. Our property was centered in a thick forest of Douglas fir, western red cedars, and hemlock trees.
My parents were avid gardeners, and besides the large veggie garden and flower beds, we had many ornamental shrubs. Native Oregon Grape, salmon berries, and salal bordered the edges of our property.
One of my earliest memories is that of watching the winter birds. First, they perched in shrubs, then they flew off, and then they were back again.
Dark-eyed juncos, sparrows, and chickadees gathered in the shrubs. Larger birds, such as crows, owls, and ospreys roosted in the trees. On the lake, ducks, Canada geese, and grebes swam along with the occasional swan or loon.
Birdwatching provided endless entertainment during a time when our television antenna only picked up the signals from two stations. While we did see shows like Star Trek, Batman, Get Smart, and the Addams Family in the evenings, TV overall was a wash, as storms had cut the power to our home many times. Some winters were worse than others, and sometimes, we were without power for several weeks, waiting for the linemen to hook us back up.
To this day, birdwatching is one of my family’s favorite things to do.
About the Artist, via Wikipedia:
Bruno Andreas Liljefors, 14 May 1860 – 18 December 1939) was a Swedish artist. He is perhaps best known for his nature and animal motifs, especially with dramatic situations. He was the most important and probably most influential Swedish wildlife painter of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He also drew some sequential picture stories, making him one of the early Swedish comic creators. [1]
To read more about the artist, go to Bruno Liljefors – Wikipedia.
Credits and Attributions:
IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Bruno Liljefors – Winter landscape with bullfinches 1891.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bruno_Liljefors_-_Winter_landscape_with_bullfinches_1891.jpg&oldid=812150991 (accessed December 14, 2023).
[1] Wikipedia contributors, “Bruno Liljefors,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bruno_Liljefors&oldid=1170413866 (accessed December 14, 2023).
Life in the Realm of Fantasy 