Philips Koninck, 'An Extensive Landscape with a Hawking Party', probably about 1670

In this enormous painting, Philips Koninck shows us a panorama of the Dutch countryside under a vast sky. It was meant to bring a feeling of tranquillity but also, perhaps, a desire to explore. Without having to stir from the fireside, the picture’s owner could follow the winding path into the far distance and discover all that the coach and horses have passed as they trundle out of the woods.

Koninck draws the eye towards the horizon, beginning with the glint of the sun on water close to us. Here, road and stream are together, the road in the middle distance crossing a bridge. We follow them on either side of a flat piece of land, before they join a little further on; now together, they appear to meander away towards the bend in a sparkling river many miles away. Once he has established this distance, it seems that Koninck allows the eye to wander back and find the many details he placed in the landscape. What seems an almost deserted stretch of land is actually peopled with many figures: the women washing clothes in the stream, a man fishing, a small figure brandishing a stick as he rides a make-believe hobby horse.

On the road to the left is the hawking party. Coming round a bend near a grassy mound topped with scrubby bushes, an elegant man in a feathered hat points away across the countryside. Beside him, a woman in a white bonnet and shawl rides side saddle. In front of them, a servant carries their hooded hawks on a frame hanging from his shoulders, one bird fluttering its wings to keep balance as he strides along. Far behind them, beyond another couple on horseback, a second servant hurries along to catch them up. A hawk sits on his wrist and his dogs run beside him.

Between the hunting party, the rumbling coach and the distant river there are houses among the trees and a strange chalky white village almost sketched in. Stubby trees line the road and riverbanks, and tiny boats sail on yet another stretch of water. Although the landscape is flat – as Holland is – this isn‘t a real view, but one imagined by Koninck and of a kind appreciated in a busy household as a restful and engaging image.

The characterful little figures in the painting weren’t painted by Koninck, but probably by his colleague Jan Lingelbach. To have another artist paint figures, perhaps drapery or other details that were not your forte, was common practice among painters in the Netherlands at the time and in no way detracted from the quality or appreciation of the picture.