Typical of the atmospheric silver-grey winter scenes produced by Ostade in the 1640s, this picture successfully integrates anecdotal detail, figures playing and going about their business on the ice, within a convincing evocation of the winter landscape. Such cheerful scenes appear to have been extremely successful with contemporaries and several artists, including Steen and Wouwermans (qq.v.; cf. Wouwermans P65 and P218), copied Ostade’s approach and distinctive silvery tonality. The ambitious scale and skilful execution of the present work indicate a date in the mid-1640s. The picture was given to Lady Wallace by Alfred de Rothschild in exchange for another Isack van Ostade, 'Travellers Outside an Inn' (1646; The Hague, Mauritshuis).