Three People Walking in Winter

A path – painted in perspective creating a distance – a couple and in far distance a woman approching the observer. A slightly hilly winter landscape is hardly separated from the sky, only vaguely separated in colour, and merges with the sky. The purposeful movement of people on the painting is expressed only by figures and their mutual ralationship. Position of the couple with their heads slightly bowed displays an attempt to make progress in relation to the women in the background. A vast distance from the woman who is alone and tries to catch up with the couple, and the position of the couple in the front field of vision finally leads to orientation of the whole fugaration towards a target outside the painting.

With its colourfulness of the late style, this painting serves as an example for an extensive formal unit.  The artist succeeded in realising one of his basic artistic wishes to which he devoted all of his time and work: figure and space. A man and a woman are in a way individual, although they make a couple and are placed very close to each other. Yet, there is a clearly perceptible spatial distance between them; each of the figures takes up enough space around oneself. The body of a woman, although completely two-dimensional, simultaneously owns a surrounding "spatial shell". Remarkably, this effect does not depend on the position of legs, since the distance is perceptible even if we cover the legs.