A river landscape with farmhouses and a dovecote on the right bank, and several sailing boats and other fishing vessels on the water

In 1637, the year he finished the present atmospheric river landscape, Jan van Goyen lost a great deal of money, supposedly through a failed venture in the tulip market. Despite this financial setback, he bought a house on the Singelgracht in The Hague already in 1639 and in 1638 and 1640 the city appointed him head of the Guild of Saint Luke. Van Goyen was astonishingly productive in the 1630s and 1640s and the present lot is a fine example the pinnacle of his creative work around 1640. In the Alte Pinakothek in Munich there is a very similar river landscape by Van Goyen, also on panel and with similar dimensions.