ARTWORKS

A Scene on the Ice near Dordrecht

Jan van Goyen (1596–1656)

The National Gallery, London

A Scene on the Ice near Dordrecht

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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Barely a third of van Goyen’s painting of life on the ice in seventeenth-century Dordrecht shows people; the rest is sky. But he still manages to pack the picture full of incident and humour. Some people squeeze into horse-drawn sledges, while others zoom across the ice or stand and chat. Some play kolf, the forerunner of golf – or miss their shot and fall over, watched by an unhelpful dog.

The air is still with a mist of frost and yet the picture seems to move – a skirt flaps, a hat skids on the ice, legs kick in the air. We know which of the skaters is practiced and moving at speed and which are beginners, clinging on, their bodies tense.

The large building on the right is the Riedijk water gate, outside Dordrecht. Further away across the frozen Merwede river, on the left, stands Merwede Castle, already a ruin by van Goyen’s time.

The National Gallery, London

London

Read more on The National Gallery, London
Title

A Scene on the Ice near Dordrecht

Date

1642

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 117.5 x W 151 cm

Accession number

NG1327

Acquisition method

Bought (Lewis Fund), 1891

Work type

Painting

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The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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Artist or maker

Jan van Goyen

1596–1656

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