The Hunters in the Snow

The Hunters in the Snow this image has been with me as long as I can remember.  There was a print in our primary school, hanging in reception or the hall. Of course I knew nothing of its wider context, but it is amazing, magical, it is like a movie, and like a movie it draws you into its plot and takes you on a journey to another time and another place.  

The Hunters in the Snow (Dutch: Jagers in de Sneeuw), also known as The Return of the Hunters, is a 1565 oil-on-wood painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The Northern Renaissance work is one of a series of works, five of which still survive, that depict different times of the year. The painting is in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria. This scene is set in the depths of winter during December/January.