A winter landscape with kolf players on a frozen lake by a village

While best known for his nocturne landscapes in the Dutch landscape tradition, Aert van der Neer also produced several winter scenes rooted in the Flemish tradition and the style of Hendrick Avercamp. These scenes are suffused with his characteristically cool tonality, in blues and grays that evoke the chill of winter.

Here, van der Neer highlights the centrality of the frozen river in Dutch daily life, both in work and play. A group of men play kolf, watching on as the figure in black tees up to take a stroke. On the right, a group of boys throw snowballs. Still other figures toil at moving goods across the ice, and the bustle extends far into the distance. Characteristic of van der Neer, gnarled tree trunks flanking the river create depth in the scene, and the precisely rendered rowboat in the foreground gives way to the atmospheric haze of the background.