A winter day at a mountain lake.

Anders Andersen-Lundby was a Danish-German painter who specialized in winter landscapes — his Alpine and Bavarian winter scenes achieving considerable international success through their combination of technical precision and romantic atmospheric appeal. His 'Winter Day at a Mountain Lake' (1887) participates in the tradition of Alpine winter painting that combined scientific observation of winter conditions with the emotional appeal of sublime mountain scenery. His winter lakes, with their ice-covered surfaces and surrounding snow-laden forests, were among his most commercially successful subjects.

Andersen-Lundby renders the winter mountain lake with careful attention to the specific optical conditions of ice and snow in winter sunlight — the way frozen water differs visually from open water, the quality of winter light on snow-covered slopes and forest. His palette for winter subjects emphasizes the blue-white of snow shadow, the warm ochre of winter sun, and the dark greens of snow-laden firs against the white landscape.