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Liudmila Kondakova - Winter in Paris
Neige Sur la Cite
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It's hard to match the romantic impact of gently falling snow. Its quieting effect on the world, as it muffles noise, diffuses light, and softens hard edges creates a sensation of calm and insulation. City dwellers, like anyone else, are not immune to its seductive nature, and forgo other modes of transportation to take a romantic walk in the snow.
Liudmila Kondakova, a realist painter in the romantic tradition, has portrayed her favorite city of Paris at sunrise, sunset, and every beautiful time of day and night in between, but the city in a snowfall takes on a particularly magical atmosphere. Winter in Paris (Neige sur la Cite) shows Kondakova's popular Parisian street scenes bathed in the special glow of a snowfall; colors are at once striking yet subdued, lights are bright yet diffused, and the advertisements on the buildings, while at other times almost gaudy in their efforts to catch your eye, submit their flashy side to the softening effect of the snow.
Many of Kondakova's paintings, by design, are sparsely populated, but she shows an especially tender side here, as we see a mother and father pulling their little child in a sled along the wintery streets. Braving chilly temperatures, they cannot resist the allure of an evening stroll through the snowfall, as they enjoy Winter in Paris.
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