Three Views of Four Seasons (China, Germany, Liechtenstein)

Spring is coming to the Mid-Atlantic (too slowly for me). Has it always been thus?

Some 800 years ago, Liu Shong Nian (1155-1224) approached the seasons in a more contemplative frame of mind.

His exacting watercolor renderings of the seasons are featured on a 2018 Chinese souvenir sheet (from right to left: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter). His seasons express the harmony between nature and human activity.

These are exquisitely detailed miniature paintings, each about 4″x5″. Note the white tree blossoms at water’s edge and the abundant greenery of Summer in the enlarged stamp (top left). And below it, notice snow covering roofs and distant mountains. All is in harmony.

In 2006, Deutsche Post photographically rendered each season as the year unfolded, beginning with a Winter stamp in January. The intent of the stamps was to convey the beauty of personal communication via the ordinary letter. Then and now, electronic mail hungrily devours personal postal communication; however, the beauty of a snow-covered oak, white tree blossoms in Spring, yellow-flowering rapeseed, and a beech forest, combined with the personal touch of a simple letter, impart a truly unique dimension to human messaging.

What a difference 800 years makes—even 10 years! In 2016, Liechtenstein gave us the four seasons on one stamp. Designer Hans Peter Gassner presents the seasons in the four quadrants of the stamp beginning with Winter at top left and proceeding clockwise through Spring, Summer and Autumn. Gassner’s approach to the seasons is totally abstract. Pallets of color dots, circles and squares within a seasonal grid convey the feeling of distinct times of year. And though images of nature and mankind are absent, perhaps that same sense of harmony that Liu Shong Nian conveyed in watercolor, and Germany via photography, is conveyed by this stamp. When I ponder the color fields with a contemplative mind, I can see and feel the beauty of the snow on the distant mountain, a soft Spring rain, exuberant summer flowers, and Autumn’s mature coloring.