Dutch School, 1630s

A Winter Landscape with Kolf Players

oil on panel

22 ¼ × 29 ¾ inches (56.5 × 75.6 cm.)

PROVENANCE:
Bob P. Haboldt, Inc., New York, 1984 from whom acquired by; Private Collection, New York, November, 1984, until the present time

In the midst of winter a village lies covered in snow along the banks of a frozen river with a city visible in the distance. In the left foreground a man and a woman with a child bundled on her back trudge through snow towards the village. The infant’s exposed naked feet send a chill through the viewer. An excited dog alerts a man wearing a heavy cloak drawn protectively over his mouth against the biting cold, to the approach of the threesome. Another man and his dog stroll the riverbank while a rider on horseback led by a dog depart the town. All of the buildings including the church tower are shuttered against the freeze, no visible smoke rises from the chimneys. In the midground a frozen well further illustrates the hardships brought on by the cold season. Yet on the ice a holiday mood prevails as the true nature or winter is revealed and the result of the season’s severity enjoyed. In the right foreground an elegant group of four men wearing large hats, lace collars and wide-legged breeches without skates play a game of kolf. The predecessor of today’s ice hockey and golf, kolf is a mixture of the two’s principles. Everyone else on the ice wears skates, a number carry poles, one man rests on a boat stuck in the ice, two push sledges, while another answers the call of nature. Singly or in pairs the skaters form a serpentine line that leads the eye into the depths of the composition. Colorful accents are provided by the blues and reds in the various figures’ clothing. A band of light hovers over the horizon, while the rest of the blue sky is cloud covered, producing the intermittent effect of spotlighting the landscape. Large twisting trees dance across the scene marking both width and depth. The combination of a vantage point somewhat set back from the scene along with an elevated horizon line blend to create an expansive vista.

Hendrick Avercamp ¹ (1585-1634) was the first Dutch artist to specialize in winter scenes. His first dated winter scene was executed in 1608. Avercamp’s work met with great success and inspired other Dutch artists to take up the theme. Soon winter landscapes became a staple in many artists’ repertoire throughout Holland.² Wolfgang Stechow wrote “In many ways the Winter Landscape is the Dutch seventeenth century landscape par excellence”.³ Our painting incorporates all the standard characteristics of the tradition; i.e. a wide frozen body of water receding diagonally from the foreground between two riverbanks displaying structures clustered predominately to one side, while on the ice’s seemingly endless surface groups revel in seasonal activities under a looming sky, with the composition’s edges framed by bare trees.⁴ Although unattributed, stylistically the panel appears to date from the 1630s. The right side of the work to some extent recalls Anthonie Verstralen (circa 1594-1641), while the left-hand side is a bit reminiscent of Haarlem school works.⁵ Although a charming hybrid, it captures the perceived essence of seventeenth-century Holland, while confirming the reason for the popularity of such scenes throughout the centuries.

George S. Keyes, “Hendrick Avercamp and the Winter Landscape”, in Avercamp Frozen Silence, catalogue K&V Waterman, B.V., Amsterdam, 1982, p. 37.

Albert Blankert, “Hendrick Avercamp”, in Avercamp Frozen Silence, op. cit., pp. 15, 23, 31-32.

Wolfgang Stechow, Dutch Landscape Painting of the Seventeenth Century, Hacker Books, 1980, p. 82.

C. J. de Bruyn Kops, “Aert van der Neer”, in Masters of 17th-Century Dutch Landscape Painting, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, February 3 – May 1, 1988, p. 385.

Written communication with Marijke C. de Kinkelder dated November 25, 2008.

Home Page | Upcoming | Catalog | About Us | Services | Search | Contact Us | Links