.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
Winter activities popular in the Netherlands of the 17th century are on full display in this painting by Salomon van Ruysdael. Skating, a pasttime in the region since the late Middle Ages, is featured. Ruysdael captures perfectly the distinctive posture and balance of those propelling themselves forward on the ice, as well as the awkward sitting and adjusting of laces that accompanies the endeavor. Figures also traverse the ice on foot or in horse-drawn sleighs, while children in the left foreground sit in a sleigh pulled by a goat as dogs tussle nearby. Along the river stand tents, from which wares were sold to those traveling or frolicking on frozen rivers and canals. Such practices flourished when winters were particularly cold in Northern Europe and low temperatures extended well into the spring, making iced-over waterways alternative village squares.
Beginning with Pieter Bruegel I's winter scenes of the 1560s, artists took up such subjects with gusto (see P. Roelofs et al., Hendrick Avercamp: Master of the ice scene, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam and Washington, 2009, pp. 23-29, 66-67). In the 1620s, Ruysdael painted three such scenes that evoke the work of his predecessor Esaias van de Velde (1587-1630) (W. Stechow 1938, op. cit., nos. 1-3). Later in the 1650s, Ruysdael returned to winter scenes, which nevertheless remain somewhat unusual in his oeuvre, as only around twenty pictures of this subject by him are known (P. Sutton, Masters of 17th-Century Dutch Landscape Painting, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam, Boston and Philadelphia, 1988, pp. 474-475). In these works, Ruysdael often incorporated views of recognizable cities and landmarks. Although he spent his career in Haarlem, he traveled extensively throughout the Netherlands, using his excursions to gather images for his paintings which, while not always geographically accurate, contain recognizable landmarks. The present picture is dated 1653, the same year as two other works, one now in the Mauritshuis, The Hague (inv. 1128) and another in a private collection (P. Sutton, 1988, op. cit., fig. 1), that depict similar skating scenes outside the city of Arnhem. These works, like the present painting, depict a frozen river with a low horizon line, with a city visible on the right.
The city depicted here is Vianen in the province of Utrecht. The skyline is distinguished by Batestein castle, a residence of the Brederode family on the river Lek. During the Eighty Years War, the castle served as a meeting place for leaders of the Dutch revolt, while later it was known for its ornamental gardens built by Johan Wolfert Brederode in 1630. Vianen was a popular site for artists. Ruysdael painted the city in milder weather in a River Landscape now in the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester (inv. L.F74.1955.0.0). Hendrick Vroom had depicted the river and castle with its gardens around 1620-1625 (Stedelijk Museum Vianen, inv. 1250), while a more direct precedent for Van Ruysdael's work is a skating scene with Batestein castle by Jan van Goyen from 1624 in the collection of Baron van Dedem (Sutton 2002, op. cit., no. 17). Rather than mimic the gray skies and muted light of Van Goyen, however, Ruysdael preferred to depict the bright blue sky and vibrant color of a crisp winter day.
Beginning with Pieter Bruegel I's winter scenes of the 1560s, artists took up such subjects with gusto (see P. Roelofs et al., Hendrick Avercamp: Master of the ice scene, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam and Washington, 2009, pp. 23-29, 66-67). In the 1620s, Ruysdael painted three such scenes that evoke the work of his predecessor Esaias van de Velde (1587-1630) (W. Stechow 1938, op. cit., nos. 1-3). Later in the 1650s, Ruysdael returned to winter scenes, which nevertheless remain somewhat unusual in his oeuvre, as only around twenty pictures of this subject by him are known (P. Sutton, Masters of 17th-Century Dutch Landscape Painting, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam, Boston and Philadelphia, 1988, pp. 474-475). In these works, Ruysdael often incorporated views of recognizable cities and landmarks. Although he spent his career in Haarlem, he traveled extensively throughout the Netherlands, using his excursions to gather images for his paintings which, while not always geographically accurate, contain recognizable landmarks. The present picture is dated 1653, the same year as two other works, one now in the Mauritshuis, The Hague (inv. 1128) and another in a private collection (P. Sutton, 1988, op. cit., fig. 1), that depict similar skating scenes outside the city of Arnhem. These works, like the present painting, depict a frozen river with a low horizon line, with a city visible on the right.
The city depicted here is Vianen in the province of Utrecht. The skyline is distinguished by Batestein castle, a residence of the Brederode family on the river Lek. During the Eighty Years War, the castle served as a meeting place for leaders of the Dutch revolt, while later it was known for its ornamental gardens built by Johan Wolfert Brederode in 1630. Vianen was a popular site for artists. Ruysdael painted the city in milder weather in a River Landscape now in the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester (inv. L.F74.1955.0.0). Hendrick Vroom had depicted the river and castle with its gardens around 1620-1625 (Stedelijk Museum Vianen, inv. 1250), while a more direct precedent for Van Ruysdael's work is a skating scene with Batestein castle by Jan van Goyen from 1624 in the collection of Baron van Dedem (Sutton 2002, op. cit., no. 17). Rather than mimic the gray skies and muted light of Van Goyen, however, Ruysdael preferred to depict the bright blue sky and vibrant color of a crisp winter day.