Artwork
Paysage d'Hiver
Paysage d'Hiver is a print by Lydie Gallais. It dates from 2010 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
Overview
Created in 2010, *Passage d'Hiver* is a screenprint enhanced with silver leaf by French artist Lydie Gallais. The work is signed, numbered, and titled by the artist, affirming its status as a limited edition. Its abstract composition blends bold color and textured surfaces to evoke a winter landscape not through representation but through emotional resonance and gestural mark-making.
Subject & Meaning
These elements together convey a sense of stillness and decay, more felt than described, inviting contemplation of nature’s quiet endurance.
The piece suggests a wintry scene through abstract elements: a deep blue upper field, a horizontal band of green and yellow implying a horizon, and two vertical forms in red-purple that appear fractured or weathered. The ground, rendered in chaotic purple and black strokes, evokes tangled roots or frozen earth. These elements together convey a sense of stillness and decay, more felt than described, inviting contemplation of nature’s quiet endurance.
Technique & Style
Gallais employs screenprinting to build layered color fields, then adds silver leaf for subtle luminosity. The brushwork is thick and irregular, with visible hand-drawn lines that resist precision. The palette is intense yet non-naturalistic—colors are chosen for emotional weight, not realism. The result is a surface that feels both deliberate and spontaneous, balancing control with expressive chaos.
History & Provenance
The work was produced in 2010 as part of a limited print run, each piece authenticated by the artist’s signature and numbering. While its exhibition history is not widely documented, its inclusion in institutional collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum suggests recognition within contemporary print circles. Its provenance remains tied to the artist’s studio and selected galleries specializing in post-2000 printmaking.
Context
Emerging from a tradition of French abstract expressionism, Gallais’s work aligns with artists who prioritize materiality and emotional tone over figuration. *Passage d'Hiver* reflects a broader post-millennial interest in landscape as psychological space rather than topographical record. The use of silver leaf nods to historical decorative practices, recontextualized within a contemporary, non-representational framework.
Legacy
Though not widely reproduced in major art historical texts, the work contributes to a growing body of contemporary prints that challenge the boundaries between abstraction and landscape. Gallais’s integration of traditional materials like silver leaf into modern printmaking offers a quiet counterpoint to digital and mass-produced aesthetics, influencing a niche but persistent interest in tactile, hand-finished editions.
Artist & collection
Artist
Lydie Gallais prints quiet moments—winter fields and sunlit naps—on paper. Her two prints in this set, *Paysage d'Hiver* and *Afternoon Nap*, feel like postcards home: the first shows a snow-dusted lane, the second a…
