A winter landscape with figures skating and playing kolf on a frozen river before a church

Jan Abrahamsz. Beerstraaten was the most prominent member of a family of artists from Amsterdam. In addition to his depictions of southern seaports and sea battles, Beerstraaten was famed for his winter landscapes. From about 1659 on, the artist began to depict topographically accurate views of mid-seventeenth century Holland, particularly in and around Amsterdam.

Beerstraaten’s winter landscapes, of which the present painting is a particularly fine example, are characterized by their somewhat romantic atmosphere. His color scheme in these paintings tends to be tonal in nature, with subtle modulations of color to create the play of light across the crisp, snowy landscape. The sense of atmosphere is enhanced by the comparatively low horizon line in which one-third or more of the composition is given over to sky, while space, as here, is established through diagonally receding frozen waterways with various figures cavorting on the ice.