Offered by Didascalies
French 17th & 18th centuries furniture and Arts
Oil on canvas representing "Skaters on a frozen lake", Dutch school of the late sixteenth century.
Without frame, with its original stretcher.
Private collection.
Dimensions : h. 92 cm x l.128 cm.
In perfect condition.
This painting is in the tradition of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569), in particular for his painting "Hunters in the snow" kept in Vienna. Bruegel made these snowy landscapes with skaters very popular. They were copied by his son Pieter Brueghel the younger (1565-1636) and by other painters like Jacob Grimmer (1525-1590).
Thus one notes a multiplication of this kind of paintings in Holland. Could it be because the winters are harsh or long? It is rather a phenomenon of fashion.
The taste of a well-to-do public to buy paintings incited the painters of this time to multiply this kind of scenes of which our painting is a very beautiful example.