Peasants in an extensive landscape

As pointed out in Chr. Vogelaar, et. al., Jan van Goyen, 1996, p.103, the panoramic landscape was treated by Jan van Goyen from 1636. The view of Rhenen of that year is generally regarded as his first (private collection, Vogelaar, op. cit., p.103, n019, ill.). The sources for this compositional scheme are the dune landscapes from the early 1630's, where a sandy hill was placed diagonally in the foreground as repoussoir for the landscape behind. The present picture probably dates from the early 1640's and is to be compared with the picture signed and dated 1642 in the Museum der Bildenden Kýnste, Leipzig (H.U. Beck, Jan van Goyen, I, 1972, p.440, n0976, ill.).