‘The Little Ice Age’ swept across the Northern Hemisphere from 1300 to around 1870. This lecture explores how artists from across Europe, including Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Hendrick Avercamp, responded to this climactic phenomenon, which peaked between the 16th and early 18th centuries, to create a new ‘art of winter’.  We will begin by looking at earlier depictions of winter scenes and landscapes, including iconic images from the Duc de Berry’s Très Riches Heures manuscript and the wonderful snowball fight depicted in the January fresco in the Torre dell’ Aquila in Trent, Italy.  We will note with surprise, how long it took for winter landscape scenes to become the backdrop for depictions of the birth of Christ, which is celebrated in the heart of Winter.  We will then explore how a rise in appetite for landscape painting and the rise of wealth in the merchant classes coincided with the peak of ‘The Little Ice Age’ causing artists to make the winter landscapes into sensational backdrops for their scenes. We will look in detail at the winter paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder including The Hunters in the Snow.  Bruegel paved the way for other Northern European artists to focus on day to day life and landscape in winter as the main subject of their work. We will focus in particular on Hendrick Avercamp whose delightful winter scenes make the viewer feel warm, despite the icy subject matter.  Our exploration of the ‘art of winter’ will conclude with a brief look at later artist’s depictions of winter including sculptors who work with snow to create their masterpieces.