It's too darn hot! Here are some wonderfully evocative paintings of winter landscapes to help us all cool down

Winter (1873), Alexei Savrasov

Yes, I know it's only 77°F here in West London, but I pretty much stop functioning above 75°F. Both of my eyrie's velux windows are wide open, there's an industrial-strength floor-standing fan on its top setting planted 12 inches from my right ear, and a vast Magicool humidifier - also on max - humming away three feet behind me. And I'm still feeling oppressed.  Oh well - fingers crossed, this is the hottest it'll be between now and next summer, and, with any luck, we'll get some snow this winter. In the meantime, I've been enjoying classic wintry paintings online:

Stream in a wintry forest, Walter Moras (1856-1925)

Forest silence, John F. Carlson (1874-1945)

Sunday (1889), Andrei Ryabushkin

The icebergs (1861), Frederic Edwin Church

Winter morning (1903), Andrei Ryabushkin 

Sleigh ride on a sunny winter's day (1919), Pedr Mørk Mønsted

Sunny winter day, Walter Moras (1856-1925) 

Halstead Road in Snow (1935), Eric Ravilious

Not a painting, but as beautiful as one - the Ice Palace from David Lean's film version of Dr Zhivago (one of the most magical of all film sequences):

Ivan Fedorovich Choultsé's Winter morning in Engadine (date unknown) is too close to kitsch for comfort - but it works for me:

Winter (1890), Ivan Shishkin

Snow at Inokashira (1928)  Kawase Hasui

Early snow, Konstantin Kryzhitsky (1858-1911)

It's still 77°F - but, thanks to some Russians, a Dane, a German, a French-Russian, a Swedish-American, an Englishman and a Japanese artist, I'm definitely feeling cooler.