Ned Stark Overlooks Winterfell at Dusk — Print & Oil Painting

Very little in this part of the catalogue admits to being an illustration, and this one does it cheerfully. Ribbons of salmon, mauve and cornflower are dragged across the upper half of the canvas in long horizontal strokes with the brush loaded differently each time, a few early stars are flicked in as small yellow dots, and snow is scattered over the finished picture as fine white specks.

The castle sits small in the middle distance and pale as ice. Round towers of different heights, a curtain wall, a scatter of roofs, all of it reduced to blue-grey blocks with the last light on their western faces, standing in a shallow green valley behind two ranks of conifers. It is far enough away to be a destination rather than a home.

The figure has been pushed hard to the right and cropped at the hip. A deep blue-green cloak, a shaggy tan and grey fur collar heavy enough to change his posture, a mailed chest, and both gloved hands resting on the pommel of a sword planted between his boots. The blade is the brightest single object on the canvas and it runs straight down the right third.

Winterfell is built over hot springs, with water piped through the walls so that the stone stays warm in a country that freezes solid, which is exactly the kind of practical detail that makes the place worth standing outside and looking at. From our Game of Thrones collection, alongside the castle under a full fall of snow with nobody in front of it.