Philips Koninck, 'An Extensive Landscape with a Town', about 1665-8

Philips Koninck, who is said to have been a pupil of Rembrandt, is above all known for his panoramic landscapes in which a road or a stream leads the eye into the far distance. This painting isn't the wide, pastoral landscape that Koninck often portrayed, and that seemed to invite exploration (such as An Extensive Landscape with a Hawking Party).

This is a vast, dark landscape, strange and rather eerie under grey, lowering clouds. It seems to defy even the most adventurous to explore it. A small lake catches light reflected from the sky, but the waters look cold and still. Beyond it a little town is sketchily painted in chalky whites and shadowy, fading reds. Its towers and turrets seem fragile and crooked, as if it’s a ruinous place, no longer lived in.

Although there’s no sun, a lone woman in red with her back to us shields her eyes to peer into the foliage at the roadside. It’s as if she’s looking for something but the thick hedge bars her way. The path she stands on seems to turn sharply to the right, and gets lost in the trees – there’s no visible way through the woods in the direction she’s looking. Behind her a flock of sheep and cows seem to hesitate; some look back at the man and the child behind them. The man looks down at the little boy, who also wears red, a stick hoicked over his shoulder. They seem to hesitate too.

It’s unlikely that Koninck had a particular story in mind, although he has given the figures character so that they seem to have a tale to tell. He has left it to the viewer to decide what that is.