Jan van Goyen, 'A Scene on the Ice', 1645
About the work
Overview
The cold is almost tangible in Jan van Goyen’s evocation of life on the ice in a seventeenth-century Dutch winter. The horizon is low and the sky vast, so we are on a level with the people portrayed. A bank of grey cloud hovers overhead, just moving enough to let in the pale sun and allow a glimmer of reflection on the frozen river.
It’s an imaginary place, perhaps built up from the drawings van Goyen made in his many sketchbooks. The distant church spire and the windmill are unidentified – just typical Dutch buildings that could be seen anywhere. Rather than showing colourful incidents to entertain the viewer, van Goyen’s picture evokes an atmosphere: his tiny image is an elegy to winter. The colours are muted and swiftly painted, making the distant figures little more than grey outlines, almost like ghosts passing in the mist.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- A Scene on the Ice by a Drinking Booth; A Village in the Distance
- Artist
- Jan van Goyen
- Artist dates
- 1596 - 1656
- Date made
- 1645
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 25.2 × 34 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed; Dated
- Acquisition credit
- Salting Bequest, 1910
- Inventory number
- NG2579
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
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1907C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols, London 1907
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1960Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
-
1991Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.