Winter from the cycle The Four Seasons - The Strasbourg Views

Soon after the first cycles of seasons, Hollar began to work on another cycle based on his own design, producing four seasonal depictions that were published by Jacob van der Heyden in 1629. However, these were not landscapes or rural scenes, but urban motifs animated by the busy leisure activities of city dwellers. In the spring, marksmen assemble on a firing range near Strasbourg; in the summer, people bathe in a river that wends its way through the town; in the autumn, they transport barrels (probably of wine), and in the winter, they ride a horse-drawn sledge in the town square. All these activities pertain mostly to the bourgeoisie, not a conventional theme at the time. Although Hollar was somewhat influenced by his Netherlandish colleagues, in the way he rendered trees for example, his originality was already in evidence. His future characteristic style is discernible in the view of the town and river in Summer. He continued to employ various themes, many of them represented by landscapes and views, though they no longer inspired him to depict the four seasons.