Year 1608 Media Oil paint | Dimensions 78 cm x 1.32 m Created 1608–1608 Period Dutch Golden Age | |
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Similar Hendrick Avercamp artwork, Landscape paintings, Oil paintings | ||
Winter Landscape with Skaters is a 1608 oil on oak painting by the Dutch artist Hendrick Avercamp in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
This painting shows ice skaters of all sorts enjoying a day on a frozen river. People dressed up stand among villagers going about their daily chores. A dog chews on a dead carcass in the lower left corner. A boat sails away on a sled in the background as a group of fishermen make efforts to free a frozen sailboat in the foreground. A bird trap is seen to the left among other farm implements and the whole scene is overshadowed by a church to the left.
Winter Landscape with Skaters is considered one of Avercamp's earliest works, and is painted in a style strongly reminiscent of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Some aspects of this picture are taken directly from Bruegel's works, such as the "bird trap" which also appears in other works by Avercamp.
The painting is signed at the lower right in the form of graffiti caulked on the fisherman's hut in the foreground.
The painting was acquired with assistance from the Vereniging Rembrandt in 1897. It has appeared as a collection highlight in museum catalogs ever since.