Shrovetide. Diploma work at the easel painting srudio. prof V. Reihet

A crowd of villagers gathers in deep snow as a man in a dark coat with a red sash gestures toward two women wrapped in dark shawls kneeling beside him. At the center a figure in an ornate red-and-blue fringed costume stands amid bundled birch branches, flanked by fur-hatted men, a boy in a red shirt, and a kneeling man reaching out anxiously; a small dog crouches at the lower right.

Whites and greys of snow dominate the canvas, broken by red sashes and patches of blue; loose, vigorous brushwork and heavy impasto under diffuse winter light give the scene an animated, academic genre-painting energy tinged with cold and tension.