Winter is portrayed through a cool palette, bare trees and two angular figures who, despite their rigidity, draw close to shelter one another. Espona personifies this season as a time of retreat and acceptance: youth has passed, yet affection and gratitude for a life lived remain. To temper its apparent coldness, the artist includes a Nativity scene in the lower part of the composition—an intimate touch characteristic of his style, bringing symbolic warmth to the scene.
“Its cool colours do not diminish its tenderness; the inner life grows more intense, and the bodies, though no longer youthful, accept one another with steadfastness and gratitude for having lived through their four seasons.”
V. de Espona