The Beauty of Autumn

6 paintings that immortalize the poetry of fall...

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote:

Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.

I’ve always believed that autumn is a season of renewal, disguised as an ending. The air gets sharper, the light changes, and suddenly everything feels a little more possible.

In Fitzgerald’s world, that crisp atmosphere reflects a longing for a version of life that might finally make sense. The story unfolds in the Roaring Twenties, a time brimming with new ideas, prosperity, and a belief that everything could begin again. Beneath all the glitter, that same feeling runs through Gatsby — the urge he once had to leave behind who he was and become someone new.

Truman Capote put it best in Breakfast at Tiffany’s:

Aprils have never meant much to me, autumns seem that season of beginning, spring.

And here we are. November 6th. The air has that same edge to it. Can you feel it too? I definitely can…

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Autumn is many things. Beyond renewal, it is also the season of harvest, transition, and the melancholic allure found in impermanence.

Fall teaches us how graceful it can be to let things go. The green leaves that once thrived in summer now blaze with the ineffable beauty of amber, gold, and crimson. This is the season in which nature demonstrates the art of parting with what no longer belongs — and, as always, we would do well to learn from it.

I can’t help but think of Emily Brontë’s words here:

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.

Beyond literature, one of the most profound ways to experience the season is through art. For centuries, painters have tried to capture autumn’s essence on canvas, often conveying emotions and nuances that words alone cannot evoke.

Here are six stunning representations of autumn in art…

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1. Autumn Leaves by John Everett Millais, 1856

This masterpiece was described by the critic John Ruskin as “the first instance of a perfectly painted twilight.”

It depicts four girls gathering fallen leaves in a garden, now the site of Rodney Gardens in Perth, Scotland. They are building a bonfire, though the fire itself is unseen... only wisps of smoke rise from the leaves.

Often read as a meditation on the transience of youth, Millais’s wife Effie noted that he intended the painting to be “full of beauty and without a subject.”

2. Autumn on the Seine at Argenteuil by Claude Monet, 1873

Monet painted this view of the Seine near Argenteuil, a town northwest of Paris, soon after settling there in 1871 — most likely while working from the small boat he had transformed into a floating studio.

His vivid palette brings the landscape to life, while the play of color on the water creates a striking balance between the reflections and the scene above, blurring the boundary between reality and its mirrored image.

3. Autumn by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1573

One of a set of four paintings known as The Four Seasons — each depicting a profile portrait composed of fruits, vegetables, and plants representing a specific season — this late-1500s work by the Italian artist is one of my favourites…

Autumn is portrayed as a surly man facing left, his rough features formed from seasonal produce. His neck of pears and vegetables rises from a broken vat bound with willow branches. Apples and pears shape his face, a pomegranate forms the chin, and a mushroom with a fig-shaped earring serves as the ear. His hair is made of grapes, and his bonnet of a pumpkin.

4. Avenue of Poplars in Autumn by Vincent van Gogh, 1884

A lesser-known but truly magnificent work by the legendary Dutch painter.

In October 1884 Van Gogh described Avenue of Poplars in Autumn to his brother Theo:

The last thing I made is a rather large study of an avenue of poplars, with yellow autumn leaves, the sun casting, here and there, sparkling spots on the fallen leaves on the ground, alternating with the long shadows of the stems. At the end of the road is a small cottage, and over it all the blue sky through the autumn leaves.

5. Evening, Brockham, by Edward Wilkins Waite, 1890

A breathtaking piece by this remarkable English landscape painter, it draws you into the melancholy beauty of a late autumn day — where wind sighs through the fields and the scent of smoke drifts on the dimming air.

6. Forest in Autumn by Gustave Courbet, 1841

In this masterful painting, the artist depicts the rich tones and textures of the natural world in the full embrace of autumn.

Courbet captures not only what the eye sees but what the heart senses: the calm before rebirth, the dignity of decline, the poetry of evanescence…

Albert Camus probably said it best:

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

Now is the time to pause, to breathe, to reflect — and to let go. Autumn is here, and with it comes the chance to begin again. This time, it’s yours to take.

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