Monastery in Winter

A frozen lake, snowfields with blue shadows, trees in hoarfrost. A sledge track runs across the ice from the foreground towards the hill, and it is what leads the eye.

On the hill stands a monastery: whitewashed walls with corner towers under conical roofs, a cathedral with five dark slate-blue domes, each on its own drum, and a separate bell tower to the right with an open belfry tier. Only the crosses are gilded — in winter that is enough.

The low sun stands behind cloud, its disc invisible, but the light is pink and falls on the walls and the ice. As in every subject of the series there is one person in the frame: the walker, seen from behind, a dark mark on the snow.