I hope you’re enjoying in our Art Blogmas so far. I’m having a lot of fun picking up the most beautiful paintings from European museums for you during the last two weeks. It’s day twelve of our Art Blogmas today, and I’m sharing with you Jan Steen’s The Feast of Saint Nicholas with you.
In today’s Art Blogmas, I’m sharing one of my favourite winter paintings with you – Hendrick Avercamp’s Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters.
Dutch Golden Age heritage sites are something you can not miss while in the Netherlands. The 17th century was the most glorious time for that country. Dutch ships were sailing worldwide and were bringing exotic and expensive goods back to the Netherlands. Society of wealthy middle-class free people started to develop, which led to establishing the only republic in Europe at that time. A good economy led to the flourishing of art and architecture. Which left the Netherlands today with numerous beautiful Dutch Golden Age heritage sites.
A long, long time ago, while the ships were still mostly navigated with paddles and sails, the majority of men living on Texel Island were somehow related to the maritime business. They would wake up early in the morning and spend the whole day in their boats, fishing at sea or repairing them at the shore. This story starts on one of those early cold winter mornings. It was as foggy as it could only get on the islands. And the only person outside of his house was a young man dressed in a thick grey coat, walking alongside the beach. His walk was suddenly interrupted when he tripped over something. That was a wooden board sticking out of the sand. And then, when he turned around himself, he saw the shore was covered entirely with them. Boards, ropes and other parts of the ship. There must have been a shipwreck during the night. Curious as he was, he came closer and noticed a huge chest…