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Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters
Hendrick Avercamp · Baroque & Dutch Golden Age
- Artist
- Hendrick Avercamp (1585–1634)
- Date
- c. 1610
- Dimensions
- 67.5 x 115 cm
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Location
- Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Schwerin, Germany
This busy winter scene shows a frozen river or lake in a Dutch village crowded with people of every kind: elegant couples skating arm in arm, children sliding, men playing kolf, a game like golf on ice, horse-drawn sledges, and even people who have fallen over.
A closer look
Avercamp was the first Dutch painter to specialise in winter landscapes, at a time when the winters of the 'Little Ice Age' were exceptionally cold and the rivers and canals froze for weeks. The high viewpoint lets us look over the whole scene, and the countless small figures are painted with humour and lively detail, rich and poor mixing on the ice. The pale, misty sky and the bare trees fade into the distance, creating a sense of cold air and space. Each little episode invites the viewer to look closely, like a picture book.