Artwork
Winter Landscape with Skaters
Winter Landscape with Skaters is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Philips Wouwerman. It dates from 1655 and is held in the collection of the Bavarian State Painting Collections.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
As a landscape painting, the work captures the social atmosphere of 17th-century Dutch winter recreation, blending human activity with the natural environment.
Philips Wouwerman's Winter Landscape with Skaters, painted in 1655, depicts a lively winter scene centered on ice skating. The composition features skaters on a frozen waterway alongside a sled and horses, set against a backdrop that includes a town and a tent. The scene incorporates the Koek-en-zopie, a traditional Dutch winter stall where skaters and onlookers gather to buy hot food and drinks, grounding the work in specific genre art traditions of the era.
As a landscape painting, the work captures the social atmosphere of 17th-century Dutch winter recreation, blending human activity with the natural environment.
Technique & Style
Executed in 1655, this work is an oil painting on panel created by Philips Wouwerman in Haarlem. The composition measures 47.6 cm in height and 63.7 cm in width. Stylistically, the piece functions as a landscape that incorporates genre elements, specifically depicting a winter scene populated by figures ice skating.
The visual narrative includes a Koek-en-zopie establishment, a tent, a town setting, a sled, and a horse, blending naturalistic environmental details with active human recreation.
History & Provenance
The painting Winter Landscape with Skaters by Philips Wouwerman is held in the collection of the Bavarian State Painting Collections, specifically located at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. Created in 1655, the work is executed in oil on panel and measures 47.6 cm in height and 63.7 cm in width. The provided sources do not contain specific accession numbers or a documented exhibition history for this artwork.
Context
Philips Wouwerman painted Winter Landscape with Skaters in 1655, an oil work on panel measuring 47.6 × 63.7 cm that belongs to the landscape genre and is catalogued as genre art. The painting is part of the Bavarian State Painting Collections and is housed in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. Its depiction of ice skating, sleds and a tent reflects the winter leisure activities recorded in contemporary Dutch visual culture.
As a member of the Haarlem school, Wouwerman contributed to a family tradition of topographical and anecdotal scenes that combined realistic observation with a decorative compositional style. Scholarship on the work emphasizes its role in the development of winter genre painting in the Dutch Golden Age and its influence on later artists who explored seasonal themes.
Overview
Philips Wouwerman's Winter Landscape with Skaters, painted in 1655, exemplifies the Dutch Golden Age's interest in everyday life and natural settings. This oil painting captures a lively winter scene, characteristic of the era's popular genre works. The artist, a prominent member of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke, frequently depicted such animated outdoor subjects. This work is part of the collection at the Alte Pinakothek.
Artist & collection
Artist
Philips Wouwerman (also Wouwermans) (24 May 1619 (baptized) – 19 May 1668) was a Dutch painter of hunting, landscape and battle scenes. He became prolific during the Dutch Golden Age and joined the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke.
