Testing the Ice

Joseph Morviller was regarded in his day as one of the best painters of snow in the United States. Scenes depicting a peaceful, frosty New England landscape dominated his oeuvre for the sixteen or so years he worked in this country. Morviller gained national attention when his paintings were published as chromolithographs by Louis Prang and Company of Boston, Massachusetts. A native of the south of France, Morviller worked as a fresco painter in France and England before coming to the United States, where he primarily lived in Boston.