Jan Wijnants, 'Peasants driving Cattle and Sheep', probably 1665-70

Jan Wijnants specialised in pictures that depicted figures moving through this particular type of rural landscape. As far was we can tell, they weren’t usually a real view, but were composed to give a pleasing effect and an impression of the countryside around the town of Haarlem, where Wijnants lived and worked. This hinterland, a place of ancient sand hills overgrown with scrub and woodland, was just a couple of miles inland from the beaches of the North Sea coast, and the huge dune which dominates the right-hand side of the painting is typical of the area.

Sandy soil is not good for growing crops, and the rough infertile land was used mostly for grazing livestock and for hunting. A collaborator who specialised in painting animals and figures has hinted at this by including two peasants with a gaggle of sheep and cattle in the foreground. Meanwhile, appearing just over the top of the hill on the right, are two sportsmen with their guns shouldered and their dogs at their sides. They will be on the lookout for game birds, rabbits and hares.

The artist who painted these was Adriaen van de Velde, with whom Wijnants often worked, but it is impossible to know whether or how much the two men discussed where the figures would be placed. They would have had a common aim, however. The figures do more than reflect the way the landscape was used – their diminishing size helps to create a sense of depth and distance, and the way that they are staggered along the winding track helps lead the eye into the middle ground of the painting. The silhouette of the caravan about to drop over a dune into a patch of sunlight also enhances the impression of distance and a deep perspective. Several other landscapes by Jan Wijnants, such as A Landscape with a High Dune and Peasants on a Road and A Track by a Dune, with Peasants and a Horseman, use figures and light effects in similar ways.

A fallen tree, positioned close to the viewer, is another device commonly used by Wijnants to increase the impression of depth. Here he has kept it relatively small, but has enhanced its effect by placing it on a shady knoll which contrasts with the sunny track beyond. A huge sky, taking up perhaps three quarters of the painting, fills it with a sense of light and space. If you look very closely you can see that it is painted relatively thinly and, with time, the grain of the panel underneath has started to show through. Wijnants worked on canvas for his larger paintings, but he often painted smaller landscapes like this on thin oak panels.