Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters

Avercamp painted this winter scene in 1608, when he was twenty-three. He was deaf and mute from childhood, and he lived in Kampen, a small town on the Zuider Zee. He specialized in winter landscapes, and this is one of the earliest and best of them. A frozen river stretches across the full width of the panel. Dozens of tiny figures skate, sled, and play kolf on the ice. Some are elegant, wearing fine clothes and gliding in pairs. Others have fallen, legs in the air. A group of men play a game with sticks and a ball. A woman carries a bundle of reeds on her head. Dogs chase each other across the ice. In the distance, a church spire rises above the rooftops of a town, and the sky is a cold, flat grey-white. The painting is small, only 13 by 29 inches, but it contains an entire world. Avercamp painted every figure with care: each one has a pose, a costume, a social position. The scene is not a single moment but a catalogue of winter activities, a bird's-eye view of a community on the ice. The viewpoint is high, as if Avercamp were looking down from a bridge or a second-floor window. Avercamp was the first Dutch painter to specialize in winter scenes. He worked in the tradition of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, who had painted winter landscapes in the 1560s, but Avercamp's figures are more detailed and more individualized. His winter landscapes were popular with collectors in his lifetime and remained so after his death. The Little Ice Age, which made Dutch winters reliably cold from about 1550 to 1700, gave him plenty of material. Oil on panel, 33 by 73 centimeters. Avercamp painted with a fine brush on a smooth panel surface, building the figures in tiny strokes of color. The ice is a pale blue-grey, the sky a slightly warmer grey. The costumes provide the only bright notes: reds, blues, and browns against the monochrome background. This print works well in a living room or study, where the narrative detail can be appreciated up close. The wide horizontal format suits a long wall or a space above a sofa. The cool palette pairs with white walls, pale wood, and silver or chrome fixtures. The 18x24 size is the minimum to see the individual figures clearly; the 16x20 framed version also works in a smaller space. The painting has been in the Rijksmuseum since 1897.