This is one of Villem Ormisson’s favourite motifs. He painted similar views on several occasions: suburban or slum houses, a smoking chimney or a wintry landscape. Ormisson paid particular attention to the colour white and to light. Alfred Kongo recalled Ormisson’s teachings as follows: “My teacher in the painting classes was V. Ormisson. He was highly respected because he was, in fact, a great painter. V. Ormisson was also a supporter of the free method: he did not disturb his students much, only made recommendations. When he noticed something well done, he always gave praise. People were occasionally unable to understand his advice. His most often uttered expression was “Add white!”. His students realised only later that by saying that he meant adding to the lightness of the painting.”
Depicting a snowy landscape enabled him to introduce lightness, while also adding shadows, reflections and refractions of light to the whiteness. White areas occasionally condense into dark blue or take on different tonalities, yet constitute an overall light background against which even small blotches of colour stand out: reddish roofs, a branched treetop or yellowish spots here and there.
“Ormisson’s paintings are colourful and spirited, simple in line and form, but the subtle manner of painting and fine colour scheme – those main virtues of modern painting – liken Ormisson’s oeuvre to contemporary French painting, which has come to be appreciated all over the world in the last couple of decades,” an article said about Ormisson in 1929