Winter scene with a group of golfers on a frozen river

Velde, Adriaen van de 1636 - 1672

Summary

This winter landscape shows a view across a broad frozen river, toward a wooden bridge, with houses on the right. A distant town is visible beyond the bridge, on the left. In the foreground, four men stand talking on the ice, two wearing skates and two holding 'colf' clubs. A fifth figure sits adjusting his skates on the near grassy bank. Behind him, a man pushes a loaded sledge across the ice. Other figures are active on the ice, and a man and child can be seen crossing the bridge. Colf was played widely on Dutch frozen canals in the seventeenth century, during the extended period of long, exceptionally severe winters that has come to be known as the Little Ice Age. The stick and ball game was played in the streets and other open areas in summer, and on the ice in winter. Adriaen van de Velde, who was mainly active in Amsterdam, was the son of Willem van de Velde I and the brother of Willem van de Velde II. Unlike them, he was not drawn to marine painting, and trained in Haarlem instead with the landscape painter Jan Wijnants. During his short, but highly productive life he specialised in Italianate landscapes and animal scenes (although he is not known to have travelled to Italy), and also produced many accomplished beach, dune and winter landscapes in a more prosaic style, of which this is a fine example.