Sleigh in Winter with Dog

About Sleigh in Winter with Dog

This folk art painting of a winter scene by Maud Lewis features a dog.

The iconic paintings of Maud Lewis—the beloved folk artist from Nova Scotia whose cheerful, colourful artwork is held in many fine art collections around the world.
This bucolic winter scene was bought directly from the artist, circa 1960 and features a rare character in Lewis’s oeuvre—a dog. In this charming painting, a horse-drawn sleigh slides through the snow in the foreground, a lone dog running ahead of it. A covered bridge, wooden fencing, and a house in the background are framed by hills, a bright blue sky and evergreen trees. The vivid colour palette is classic Maud—tomato red, sunny yellow, rich green and crisp white with chocolate brown and black offering contrast.

“I used to ‘paint’ with Crayola’s a lot. I guess I was practising.” Maud Lewis

“From time to time in the world of art, there emerges someone with extraordinary talent that sets them apart from their contemporaries and affords them a special place in the hearts of those who come in contact with the work. Maud Lewis was such an artist.” Lance Woolaver, Canadian author

Maud Lewis was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia in 1901. She was never formally trained as an artist but as a young child used to paint Christmas cards with her mother. As an adult, she sold paintings from the house she shared with her husband for five dollars. Her happy paintings belied the hard impoverished life she led—disfiguring birth defects and crippling arthritis that made it difficult to hold a paintbrush. Lewis died at age 69. The little one-room house was restored and is on permanent exhibit at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Her artwork is held there and in the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Maud Lewis is the subject of several biographies and two National Film Board of Canada documentaries. In 2017, a biopic of Maud's life titled "Maudie" was released starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke.