Aert van der Neer Amsterdam circa 1603/4 - 1677

Hitherto apparently unrecorded and unpublished, this is likely to be a mature work by Van der Neer. Although the small number of extant dated works by Van der Neer (all from the 1640s) make a chronology very difficult to establish, this picture most probably dates from the mid or late 1650s. In colouring and also in design, for example the enclosure of the scene on both sides of the foreground, it recalls the Winter scene in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, perhaps from the middle of the decade, and the Winter scene sold London, Christie's, 10 April 1981, lot 86, which Bachmann dates to around 1655-60 or later.¹ The motif of the two figures dragging a sledge in the left foreground recurs in another panel from this period, the Winter scene formerly in the Loudon collection, Wassenaar, and later with Robert Noortman, Maastricht.²  The large number of pentimenti, especially around the kolf players and the hunstman on the right of the picture, indicate that Van der Neer took unusual care with the design.  Although he did occasionally include accurate topographical details in a few of his paintings, the church in the distance on the left of the composition has not yet been identified.

1.  F. Bachmann, Aert van der Neer, Bremen 1982, p. 115, reproduced fig. 85 and p. 132, reproduced fig. 101.
2.  W. Schulz, Aert van der Neer, Doornspijk 2002, p. 189, no. 227.