This seems an appropriate painting for a January day, even though we have no snow on the ground.
Claude Monet was a French Impressionist painter and this painting “The Magpie” was one of many landscape paintings meant to illustrate the natural effects of snowfall. It was created in 1868-1869, during a several year period in which France was experiencing a series of severe winters.
Note the use of colored shadows, blue here, representing actual changing conditions of light and shadow, rather than the black demanded by academic convention. This would become a hallmark of Impressionist paintings.
