Isack van Ostade, 'A Landscape with Peasants and a Cart', 1645

In a mellow light, a group of peasants pause by a muddy pool in the shade of an oak tree. A woman perched high on a cart holds a basket and looks around her. Away in the distance to the right, a church spire and a windmill seem as delicate as cobwebs against the sky.

Isack van Ostade paints the scene with such feeling for real life that you can almost hear the giant wheel creak as the old man eases the horse to a halt. A playful little dog dances alongside the little boy who paddles in the brackish water. Two men sit and chat at the side of the pool and, behind the cart, another man watches over his cattle.

These peaceful rural scenes were very popular with seventeenth-century Dutch collectors perhaps looking for a country idyll in the midst of a busy city. Best known for his winter scenes (for example, A Winter Scene), this is one of Isack van Ostade’s few landscapes.