Winter Landscape with Skaters

landscape

There are many interesting details in this crowded scene which was certainly inspired by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Avercamp's early winter landscapes (from before 1608) are very Flemish in technique and composition: a very high horizon, many figures and a composition set up something like theatrical scenery. Between 1610 and 1620, however, the horizon in his paintings drops lower and lower, the scenery-like elements are thinned out and the figures become more grouped within the composition.

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About the Artist

Hendrick Avercamp

1585 – 1634

Dutch painter, active in Kampen, the most famous exponent of the winter landscape. He was deaf and dumb and known as `de Stomme van Kampen' (the mute of Kampen). His paintings are colourful and lively, with carefully observed skaters, tobogganers, golfers, and pedestrians. Avercamp's work enjoyed great popularity and he sold his drawings, many of which are tinted with watercolour, as finished pictures to be pasted into the albums of collectors (an outstanding collection is at Windsor Castle). His nephew and pupil Barend Avercamp carried on his style in an accomplished manner.

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