In this stirring painting from the brush of British neo-classicist John Waterhouse, Boreas, Greek god of the North Wind, is summoned via the tremendous movement that careers through the entire image. A master of emotive painting, Waterhouse forbids any indifference to the feel of the wind as it blusters against the material of the figure’s slate-coloured shawl, inflating the garment at her elbow until she, like the work itself, catches the wind’s chill.

The wind moves, too, in the grass and around each daffodil and tree, as well as dashing through the sky in brushwork that we would expect from the likes of Van Gogh or Munch.

Waterhouse is better known for his 1888 masterpiece, The Lady of Shalott, but in his lesser-known pieces, no small amount of emotion is sacrificed – his works move from dramatic to serene like the symphonies of his composing contemporaries or, indeed, the works of the poets of his time.

As the Rose and Thorn enters a new year, Waterhouse’s whirling depiction of the wind can only inspire us to pick up our tool of choice – the pen.