Job Berckheyde - Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters

Job was the elder brother of Gerrit Berckheyde and the two collaborated closely throughout their lives, possibly sharing a studio in Haarlem. Both brothers specialised in veduta painting, especially views of Dutch and Rhenish towns. Job also painted church interiors, a relatively new genre at the time, as well as, more rarely, winter landscapes. This image of ice skaters by a city wall is perhaps identical with a work by the artist sold at auction under the title "Een Winter, fraai geschildert door J. Berkheyden" by C. Elout auctioneers in Haarlem on 4.4.1780 as lot 25.
The signature with "H." as the first letter of the artist's name can also be seen on Berckheyde's 1675 self portrait in the Uffizi in Florence (inv. no. 1775).