Painting: Group of Cavalry in the Snow

These days I keep returning to the National Gallery to one little picture in the European section, Ernest Meissonier’s Group of

Cavalry in the Snow (left). It is a small picture depicting a wintry hillside where two cavalry men hold the horses, as their officers survey the frontier from the vantage point of a rock. You can see that the wind must be bitingly cold as it whips at their uniforms. One can feel and hear the crunch of frosted snow under the horses’ hoofs and the whine of the leafless trees. It’s wonderful to gaze into a history so vivid and tangible.