Jan Wijnants, 'A Landscape with a Dead Tree', 1659

Jan Wijnants was from Haarlem, which lies in the narrow corridor of land between Amsterdam and the sea. He specialised in depicting the landscapes around the town, which were formed largely of sand blown inland from the North Sea beaches and into a series of sometimes spectacularly high dunes.

At first glance, this might look like a rocky landscape with a range of hills or mountains that catch the sunlight on the horizon – but what we can see are, in fact, ancient sand hills, overgrown with grass and woodland. No specific location can be identified as a model for this painting, and – like many landscapes of the time – it probably represents an idealised rather than real view. 


In this example, Wijnants has designed a strong and dynamic composition. The line of the fence made of hurdles and wooden staves is followed by an S-shaped track that leads our eye from the foreground, over the top of the dune and into the woods in middle distance. Our gaze passes the man resting with his dog and the herdsman coming towards us with his animals. Beyond, we can just make out a horseman and his guide about to dip over the brow right in the centre of the picture.

These figures and animals are an important addition, helping the viewer to establish a sense of scale and depth, and also adding interest and dynamism to the scene. But they were not painted by Wijnants – once he had finished the landscape, he would have handed the picture over to a specialist figure painter, in this case probably Jan Lingelbach.

As well as dynamism, there is drama. The dead and dying trees, the fence post and the fallen silver birch log catch the raking light of the early morning sun and form a powerful arrangement of angles right in the foreground of the painting. The detailed depiction of the birch bark makes the log feel very close to the viewer, while the man with his dog – who can only be a few yards further down the track – seems much further away. It may be that Lingelbach made a misjudgement and painted him rather too small, or that Wijnants wanted to compress the perspective to make the trees in the foreground seem more dramatic. He achieved a similar effect in another painting owned by the National Gallery, A Landscape with Two Dead Trees, and Two Sportsmen with Dogs on a Sandy Road.

Shortly after he painted this picture Wijnants moved to Amsterdam, where he worked until his death. He often collaborated with other artists, such as Lingelbach and Adriaen van de Velde – see, for example, another of his paintings in the National Gallery, A Landscape with a Woman driving Sheep through a Ruined Archway.