Walking Through the Snow

Private Collection, Ontario

Century Magazine, “The Founding of Maryland” edition, found in: Leonard & Co., “Paintings by Hy Sandham,” Boston, 1901, page 7

A winter scene of workmen leaving the construction site of a partially erected building. Although unclear in this piece, the dome and pitched roofs of the framing in the background are reminiscent of grand state buildings of the late nineteenth century including the Grande Palais in Paris, the Massachusetts State House in Boston, and Toronto’s Horticulture Building constructed in place of the Crystal Palace exhibition centre after a fire. This painting is in keeping with Sandham’s documentary-style of everyday life in his illustrations and composite photography. “Century Magazine” described Sandham’s works as “bold and original in composition and one of their chief merits, besides their conscientiousness, is their story-telling quality; so far as patient research can make them they are valuable historical data.”