Hendrick Avercamp

Circa 1605-1608

Signed with the initials HA bottom right

Provenance

With Daniel Katz, Dieren ;

With Dr. Schaeffer, New York before 1947 ;

F.H Baron de Vos von Steenwijk, Windesheim,...

Circa 1605-1608

Signed with the initials HA bottom right

Provenance

With Daniel Katz, Dieren ;

With Dr. Schaeffer, New York before 1947 ;

F.H Baron de Vos von Steenwijk, Windesheim, circa 1949 ;

Jhr. J.C. Vegelin van Claerbergen ;

Private collection, England ;

With Essoldo Fine Arts, London, 1975 ;

Private collection.

Around 1600, the great Flemish tradition of painting snow-covered landscapes, celebrated by Hans Bol, Gillis van Coninxloo and David Vinckboons, underwent a revival in the Northern Netherlands. The severe frost which affected this region at the beginning of the 17^th century was, for many painters in Amsterdam, a pretext to revive the paintings created in Flanders. Hendrick Avercamp was undoubtedly the best and most subtle storyteller of this Little Ice Age as can be seen in this delightful winter landscape with skaters on the outskirts of Kampen, which depicts the pleasures of winter.

Skating scenes became popular in northern painting thanks to the widespread circulation of Frans Huys’ engraving of Pieter Brueghel the Elder’s work. Portraying skaters in front of Saint George’s gate in Antwerp, this engraving marks the beginning of painting winter sports on ice, a genre of which Avercamp was soon to become the undisputed master. The frozen river became the stage for both intimate and comical scenes, and it was the moralising potential of these playlets that made these magnificent white landscapes so successful. Far from the tumult of the great scene of 1609 kept in the Rijksmuseum^[1], the activity in our painting is more restrained thus emphasising the immensity of the landscape, which is nevertheless dotted with the outlines of numerous figures.

And in the attitudes of each of the small figures, we discover the fantasy and poetry of Avercamp's universe, observed from a raised viewpoint.  Fewer characters and a lower horizon line were undoubtedly Avercamp’s choice in his works executed after 1610, when he left Amsterdam to return to Kampen. Furthermore, we can indeed perceive the ramparts of this town, lightly sketched in the distance on the left in a wintry mist.

All layers of society mingle in this natural recreation ground, and it is common to see young and old, rich and poor, fishing, trying their hand at Kolf or putting on their ice skates. The distinguishing feature is their clothes, which Avercamp accentuates with patches of colour. Moreover, isn’t the small kneeling character in the foreground, attaching a blade to his shoes, a recurring image in each of the artist’s paintings? The frozen waterway is therefore both a thoroughfare for the more modest and a place of leisure for the more idle. 

The beauty of this winter landscape with skaters undoubtedly resides in the great tranquillity that emanates from it. The freshness and richness of his palette, in various shades of white, bluish-grey and light brown, fully conveys the atmosphere which must have reigned during these icy yet cheerful afternoons. Avercamp’s painting led to the creation of an actual school, and his influence spread to the brushes of Anthony Verstralen and Adam van Breen. Here, the painter reaches the pinnacle of his art: remarkably accurate, the light has a very special quality and is gentler and more enveloping than in the best Brueghelian winter landscapes.

[1] Hendrick Avercamp, Winter landscape with skaters, c.1609, panel, 77.5 x 132 cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

1585 Amsterdam - Kampen 1663

In 1586, Barent Avercamp became a pharmacist in the city of Kampen where he settled with his family and his son Hendrick, who had been mute since birth and who,...