12 Vintage Snowy Winter Paintings | Free Download

Here’s a small collection of free vintage images featuring snowy winter settings. These are curated from various public domain resources, lightly edited, and are available for personal or commercial use as they are out of copyright in the United States. If you’re from outside the US, you may have different restrictions.

To download these images, click on the image to open it to full size and then save to your computer or device.

See also: Getting organized: Digital collage elements, photos, and ephemera

First up are some paintings from the late 1800s:

Country house in winter

This is a scan of an 1873 painting of a country house. The sepia tone is from age; when it was first painted it might’ve been much brighter! This kind of print is called a “chromolithograph” which denotes a print made using layer of high-gloss color– kind of interesting how it’s changed over the years to be more low-key!

Ice skating on a pond

Here’s another chromolithograph, this time depicting a group of kids ice skating on a pond. This is also set in the country, as you can see small wooden buildings and farm animals (cows!) behind them. I especially like the little girl on the left’s outfit, with her red jacket and white muff.

This one was too cute to leave sepia-toned, so I did some editing and made a brighter version:

Snowy cabin

Yes, another chromolithograph! They’re one of my favorite kinds of graphics to use in my digital collages and junk journals, actually. This one is once again set in the country (a popular location for these Victorian pastoral paintings), and features a man with a small dog talking to a woman on a bridge over a frozen river. The little house in the back has smoke coming out from the chimney and it seems to be a very cozy scene.

I’ve also made an edited version of this one to see what it looks like in tones closer to its original set:

Quite a difference!

Enjoy these free vintage images? Sign up for our weekly newsletter and get every freebie update:

Continuing onward:

Winter Days

Here’s two vertical-oriented paintings:

The painting on the left shows some people ice skating on a frozen lake or river, with a small house covered in snow near them. In the distance you can see a church spire and more people walking towards the river. On the right is an illustration showing various winter play scenes, such as a group of people being pulled in a horse-drawn sled, ice skating, making a snowman, and sledding down a hill.

Remember to click on the image to enlarge it and save it to your device.

Winter Hunt

This print features a couple of men in old-fashioned hunting gear, following a dog across the snowy field. Above them are some people walking across a stone bridge. The icicles hanging down fro the bridge are particularly striking, I think! This image is actually titled “Winter in Switzerland” and is from 1891.

Niagara falls in Winter

Canadians and Americans will no doubt recognize this famous sight: Niagara Falls! This print is called “Winter at Niagara” and was created in 1880. Seeing Niagara without its modern tourist setting is so weird. I love the people riding on horse-drawn sleighs in the foreground.

See also: How to find REAL vintage photos online for junk journals | Library of Congress search tips

Winter Sunset

Compared to the other prints featuring snowy scenes in full sunlight, this sunset print is rather unusual. Still, there’s the typical depictions of a frozen river, snowy cabin with smoke coming from the chimney, people wearing heavy winter gear and a small dog. The sunset gives this painting more of a red or orange tint, which is interesting.

See also: How to make custom color palettes

Winter Moon

Another orange-tinted painting, but this one features the full moon hanging high in the sky. And a church, with glowing windows! I like how this one is slightly more abstract than the other paintings, especially the part around the lake in front of the stone bridge there.

Sleigh Race

Our last image is a drawing of a sleigh race in front of an American house, with a large group of people ice skating in a nearby pond. I love the detail of the women’s faces peering out of the windows, and the men with blankets over their laps in the sleighs.

I hope you liked this collection of vintage winter paintings and drawings! If you use one in a scrapbook, junk journal, or collage, please leave a comment and let me know!