Eugène Mousset studied the art of painting and drawing from the age of 15, first at the municipal Athenée, then abroad in Karlsruhe, Munich, Antwerp and finally Paris. Despite his various stays abroad, he left behind a particularly large number of paintings of Luxembourg landscapes. After his return to Luxembourg, the artist worked as a drawing professor in his native town Esch. In addition to occasional depictions of the Oesling and the Müllerthal, he remained faithful to the nature of the Minett region, which is perhaps overlooked next to the area’s prominent industry. He preferred to paint these landscapes in winter. This ‘winter landscape’, typical of Mousset, is also covered in snow.

The dark stream cuts its way through the picture in a sharp zigzag, guiding the viewer's eye. Perhaps, as is so often the case, it is the Mess that stretches across the deserted snow-covered heath to the edge of the forest on the horizon. As the sun sets low, the warm light outlines the contours of the puffy snow formations, whose play of light and shadow is reminiscent of cloudy skies.

Mousset liked to capture these impressions of light on location in an impressionistic manner. His watercolour studies then served as the basis for the slightly idealised oil paintings. Finally, the chosen canvas size of a little over one metre also emphasises the radiance of Mousset's depictions of nature. The painting also persuaded the Luxembourg State, which added it to its collections as a contemporary art purchase at the 1912 art salon of the Cercle artistique de Luxembourg to enrich the museum in planning, today's MNAHA.

Text | CC BY-NC | Michelle Kleyr