The arrival of spring is a good opportunity to study the profound influence of this radiant season on art and artistic expression. Spring art as a genre is usually dominated by vibrant colors, flowers, greenery, clear blue skies, rushing meadows, and glistening waters. 

Artists have historically associated spring as the season of new life and represented this in their art using motifs such as elements from mythology, environmental manifestations of the spring season, a personification of the mood and transformation spring season brings, and abstract interpretations.

Since ancient times, artists have been in overwhelming awe of the beauty, freshness, and power of the rebirth season. The season has been visualized by artists like as a young woman; fertile and virginal, or expressed by bare nature and seasonal social activities with many mythological motives used to symbolize the season, like 

Elemental influence of the spring season in art

1. Mythological and allegorical symbolism celebrating spring

For medieval and renaissance artists, their works celebrating the arrival of spring and the mood it evokes heavily rely on mythology and the use of allegorical images of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. The most prominent depiction of spring in art in this respect is perhaps the famous 1480 painting by the Italian painter, Sandro Botticelli, titled “Primavera” (which translates to “Spring”), which is commonly referred to as “one of the most popular paintings in Western art,” and “one of the most written about, and most controversial paintings in the world.”

The figure who most directly symbolizes the season is the Roman goddess of flowers and the spring, Flora, who is shown on the right in a flower-covered dress, scattering roses on the ground. Other figures depicted in the painting are believed to be Venus, Mercury, and Cupid. The ‘Primavera’ depicts the triumph of spring, youth and beauty clearly show nature springing back into life after the chill of winter.

The painting which was most likely commissioned by the great Florentine Renaissance art patron, the Medici Family, who were Botticelli’s employers at the time, now sits in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. 

Other spring artworks that draw from mythology as elements and forms include ‘A Song of Springtime’ (1913) by English painter John William Waterhouse, which depicts women from both ancient Greek mythology and Arthurian legend; and Walter Crane’s ‘The Fate of Persephone’ (1877). 

2. Humanization of the season using feminine motifs

Increasingly, however, artists turned away from classical mythology in their depiction of spring and made use of modern-day humanization of the rebirth season. These personifications of the season are usually portrayed as women or young lovers. 

In his verdant masterpiece entitled ‘Springtime’ (1872), Claude Monet used his first wife, Camille Doncieux, as the model in white sitting in a lush garden, under an overhanging shrub. The 16th-century Venetian painter Titian depicted a high-class prostitute in the role of the goddess Flora by showing her with spring flowers, giving her a kind of classical respectability. This depiction is believed to have inspired the 17th-century Dutch painter Rembrandt’s painting of his wife Saskia in the role of Flora.

For his part, the 17th-century Spanish painter, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, turned Flora into a modern-day flower seller, one of his 'Four Seasons' artwork. Similarly, Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s “Spring” from his “Seasons” cycle (1563) profiles a lady’s portrait composed of hundreds of photographically depicted flowers, and German artist Franz von Stuck’s “The Spring” (1902) employed an expressive means of Art Nouveau style to depict a woman with translucent pale skin, a mysterious glance, beautifully tangled long hair and a slight smile against the deep sky, recreating anticipation and promises of spring.

In his ode to the magic of springtime, Pierre-Auguste Cot’s ‘springtime’ (1873) which hangs prominently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, portrays a duo of young lovers basking in the luxuriant greenery of spring. For contemporary art depiction of spring, Kerry James Marshall conveys that same sense of wild abandon between two young lovers in vignette (the kiss), 2018, while Nigerian artist Daniel Mbo’s ‘Zoey and her pet snake’ series (2019) from Aworanka’s online catalog, features a young woman in red in the middle of knee-length shrubbery as the thick green flora looms in the background.

3. Greenery, flowers, and birds.

It goes without saying that the overarching element of spring art is the greenery that is associated with the spring season. What is spring without blossoming flowers and singing birds? Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte wonderfully combined these two elements in his ‘Spring’ artwork, painted two years before his death. At first gaze, you see the clear spring sky, a bird, trees, and a nest with eggs. Yet, if we look closely, we can see that the bird’s shape and form are unusual and it repurposes the pattern of the forest. The only real object here is the nest, riskily placed on the brink of this wall, with the bird hovering undecidedly over it. 

Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Almond Blossom’ (1888 and 1890) depicts the blossoming almond tree against a blue sky, a view that was special to him as it represents awakening and hope. He made the artwork to celebrate the birth of his nephew and namesake. Renowned to be a fan of flowering plants and vegetation, van Gogh’s ‘pink orchard’ (1888), which shows an amalgamation of Impressionist and Divisionist art styles, as well as the influence of Japanese woodcuts, was completed during a spring spent in Arles, France.

Aworanka-listed contemporary Nigerian artist Rotimi Akinyere’s oil painting ‘Forest’ (2018) also captures the abundant vegetation that springs forth in the season.  

4. Landscape 

Another element of spring art is the abundance of landscape art. Artists wanting to traverse the impressiveness of springtime often do this by showcasing the sprawling scenery of a typical spring day. 

Boris Mikhaylovich Kustodiev’s “The Spring” (1921) captures the mood and atmosphere of a Russian town in spring, with bright colors, shining sun, and flooded streets, the people seem to be content with the weather. In Russia, the coming of spring brings the thaw, when the accumulated snow and ice of the winter melts, so that the season is associated with mud and flooding, and this transformation is aptly captured by Russian artists Alexei Kondratyevich Savrasov’s “The Rooks Have Come Back” (1871) and Isaac Ilyich Levitan’s “Spring.Flood” (1897) which both celebrate the gradual arrival of spring as a respite from the winter.

Salvador Dali’s abstract painting ‘The First Days of Spring’ (1929) also evokes the landscape element of spring art. This also goes for Camille Pissarro’s fabled Paris street scene, “Boulevard Montmartre, Matinée de Printemps” (1897), part of a widely-acclaimed series in which the artist recorded the world unfolding outside the window of the Grand Hotel de Russie in spring. 

5. Bright colors

Just look outside on an April day and you’ll see a cascading of colors and radiance. This element of spring is heavily represented in artworks influenced by the season. 

Contemporary English painter David Hockney’s best-known landscape painting, ‘the arrival of spring’ (2011), capturing views of the English countryside through the changing seasons, indulge heavily on this element. Boris Mikhaylovich Kustodiev’s “The Spring” (1921) and Gustave Caillebotte's "Paris Street; Rainy Day" (1877) also employ bright colors to express the mood of people and offer a clear aerial perspective.