The iconic artworks depict a shepherd tending sheep with the evening sun shining through snowy trees.

• The Shortening Winter's Day is Near a Close (117 x 171 cm) is the prime version, held at the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight, England, under Accession Number LL3152.

Painter and Laird Farquharson owned a 20,000-acre (8,100 ha) estate at Finzean, Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, where he enjoyed painting wintery scenes, particularly of sheep.

[4] Farquharson's considerable commercial success was based on the snow scenes he exhibited almost annually at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1894 until 1925, and celebrated printsellers Frost & Reed assured him a steady income by selling deluxe editions of his works.

[6] The prime version of The Shortening Winter's Day is near a Close (Lady Lever Art Gallery) was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1903.

In 2013 it fetched £157,250 (US$200,599)[9] The 51 x 76 cm version was with the Richard Green Gallery in 1972 and reproduced in Country Life on 1 June that year.