I read this painting as portraying a figure (whom I take for a woman) carrying a load (looks like bundle of kindling, maybe more) across her back through a winter landscape. The interruption in the bank of trees in the distance, precisely aligned with her position in the foreground, suggests that may be her path-- rather than to arrive at home at the house at right--but either way this feels like a portrait of a place and rural life defined by the rhythms of walking paths carrying loads. (Perhaps it is another figure walking the opposite way at far right center?) Feels so hushed and beyond time to me, and makes me think a bit of Van Gogh and of Millet, too.
14 1/8" x 10", oil on artist board. Craquelure to the surface as evident, a few old chips of paint loss on the surface, and a bit of loss to the board along the right edge, but stable and not delicate. Much better in hand. Signed W.S. left bottom corner.
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