The Dutch painters always had a special thing for showing the winter in their country. In today’s Art Blogmas, we’re hosting one of the most famous Dutch 17th-century landscape painters, Jacob van Ruisdael and his Winter Landscape.
Art Blogmas 2022
Jacob van Ruisdael is a Dutch Golden Age painter who specialised in landscape paintings representing his country. It was something quite popular during that time. He left several winter landscapes, one of which we’re hosting in our Art Blogmas today.
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Jacob van Ruisdael: Winter Landscape
In his Winter Landscape, Ruisdael includes a few motifs typical for the Netherlands – windmills, a frozen canal and a woman dressed in traditional Dutch clothes from the 17th century.
During the 17th century, Dutch painters looked for motifs that would ultimately symbolise the Netherlands in their landscape paintings. They soon found it in a cloudy sky.
To show it also, Ruisdael painted a low horizon on his artwork, so he could stress that dark cloudy, typical Dutch sky. He uses muted and darker colours to show the winter mood in the Netherlands.
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Similarly, as it was on Hendrick Avercamp’s Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters, he didn’t show nature only but also people in it. We can see two men collecting the branches. A woman is slowly walking towards the village. And people enjoying the winter – two men ice skating on a frozen canal.
By showing different activities, these 17th-century Dutch painters successfully captured real-life and focused on realism in their paintings.
If you don’t want to miss other paintings I will share with you in this year’s Art Blogmas, be sure to check in here tomorrow morning. Or, follow along on the Culture Tourist Facebook page and Instagram profile.