Housed in a giltwood Bernard Badura frame.Provenance:Private Collection, Colmar, Pennsylvania.Private Collection, Pennsylvania.Lot Note:Originally from Pittsburgh, George Sotter lived and worked in Philadelphia and Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the New Hope art colony. An Impressionist through and through, Sotter nonetheless offered a distinct vision within the larger movement of Pennsylvania Impressionism. He particularly excelled at the genre of the nocturne, freezing in time the charm and quiet of slumbering rural hamlets. In Winter Nocturne, the night sky contrasts with the bright snow cover on the ground. Though visually striking—and subtly echoed by the glimmering stars and candle-lit windows peppering the otherwise pitch-dark landscape—the dichotomy evokes calm and serenity. Nestled in its midst, a peaceful town finds itself doubly blanketed in soft snow and soothing darkness, while the trees and vegetation spring from the shimmering ground, only to morph into infinite darkness, further cocooning the houses.