A river landscape with figures crossing the water in a ferry and others by a tavern, a village and a church beyond

Stylistically, this unrecorded picture is fully representative of van Goyen's style of the early 1650s. During that period, the artist moved away from the yellow-brown monochrome palette of the previous decade towards the present, more earthen tone, introducing only hints of colour in selected areas. This tonal style, which van Goyen first adopted in the 1630s, and to which he returned in the late 1640s, was one in which he is regarded as pre-eminent, having brought it to perfection at the time of the present work. Van Goyen's move away from his tonal pictures is, however, anticipated in the blue in the sky, suffused with dramatic clouds, perhaps also reflecting the artist's increasing interest in light and atmosphere later in his career.