Winter Landscape with Skater

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

In this drawing, the Dutch landscape painter Jan van Kessel depicted a rustic rural scene showing rundown sheds beside a frozen canal with a small village church beyond. A skater glides under an overgrown stone bridge. Such rural landscape scenes, considered fundamentally Dutch, became the focus of the Dutch landscape school in the 17th century. Van Kessel was also noted for his trees; the central tree in this image was rendered with black chalk and grey ink wash to create a gently shimmering effect. Frozen canals in 17th-century Holland were a mainstay of entertainment for skaters like the one seen in this drawing, providing access from town to town like roads.