Cornelis van der Schalcke, 'An Extensive River Landscape', about 1659

In seventeenth-century Holland, artists and viewers alike were fascinated by the Dutch landscape. Pictures of it take many forms – from the down-to-earth farmstead to the softly glowing Italianate view – but because of the flat terrain, many convey the sense of vast space that opens to the eye from even the smallest of hills. Very few of Cornelis van der Schalcke’s pictures remain; of those that do, almost all show an extensive landscape like this one.

While landscape painting allowed artists to include groups of people, with the situation and their relationships open to interpretation, they aren‘t the centre of attention here. The eye is constantly taken from the hill slopes in the foreground into the distance, softly lit by a break in the clouds overhead. One horizontal line after another crossing the picture should have the effect of making us stop to see what we can find in between, but even the silvery band of the river isn’t a barrier between us and the far off horizon. Is there a range of low hills beyond, or is it just a band of cloud on the horizon? Whatever it is, it seems necessary – as if the eye can't take any more distance.

Yet there are details to find. Close to us, two men take a rest from catching rabbits with their skinny dogs. More men sit on the bank while below them a team of six horses trundle a coach out of the forest, accompanied by riders and runners. The woods seem impenetrable until a row of houses is made out, painted in the same soft, muted colours as the trees and bushes. Beyond them a strange building thrusts up out of the undergrowth with a balustrade around its roof – perhaps a viewing platform for a well-to-do family to admire the scenery. Around it are windmills and in the distance a church tower. There are boats on the river, their sails almost the colour of the water, but shown up by dark foliage behind them. And on the horizon the tiny, hazy outline of a large building once thought to be Antwerp Cathedral.

Van der Schalcke spent his entire working life in Haarlem and this panoramic view is probably based on the coastal sand dunes to the west of the town, so Antwerp Cathedral is an unlikely inclusion in the scene. Other artists living in the town also chose to paint the dunes, but not at such a distance and perhaps with more emphasis on figures and buildings. For instance, Jacob van Ruisdael portrayed imaginary ruins against a background of the Haarlem dunes in Ruins in a Dune Landscape. Others, like Philips Koninck in An Extensive Landscape with a Town in the Middle Distance, shared van der Schalcke’s interest in the extensive landscape, but probably used more imaginary views than his Haarlem dunes.