This aquatint, titled “Old St. Paul’s, Toronto” by Nicholas Hornyansky, depicts the historic St. Paul’s Anglican Church in winter, rendered with the artist’s characteristic mastery of tone and architectural detail.

The composition captures the church’s stone façade beneath a soft winter sky, its pointed Gothic windows and spire rising from a snow-covered foreground. Hornyansky’s subtle gradations of colour — cool blues, muted greens, and warm ochres — convey the stillness and clarity of a crisp winter morning. The sunlight glints off the slate roof, suggesting melting snow and the quiet resilience of the old stonework. The artist’s use of aquatint, with delicate washes and precise etched lines, brings out both the texture of the masonry and the intricate tracery of the rose window.

The overall mood is contemplative, honouring the endurance of Toronto’s early ecclesiastical architecture amid a changing urban landscape. Hornyansky, who often documented historic Canadian buildings, here combines documentary precision with atmospheric lyricism — a hallmark of his printmaking style.