The Diligence in the Snow

A diligence, the big public stagecoach that carried people across France before the railways took over, has foundered in deep snow, its team of horses and oxen floundering while tiny figures try to dig it free. Courbet said he had seen a wreck like this himself while out hunting in the forest, and he painted the cold right into the canvas, white piled on thick with a palette knife for snow and rock, the black wood behind it scraped almost dry. He made it in 1860, just as the rail network was spreading fast across the country and coaches like this one were starting to vanish from the roads. The whole wide picture is nearly colorless, the warmth of the travelers swallowed by all that white.