Lot 2250 Dα

This imposing winter landscape is one of the early large format works by the Dutch landscape painter. After a "Summer Landscape" painted in 1830 (98 x 128 cm, Gorissen 30/98) and a "Mountain Landscape" painted in 1833, once in the possession of Queen Wilhelmina, this picture is an impressive example of Barend Cornelis Koekkoek's landscape painting.
The viewer's gaze begins at a tree-covered rock face on the left edge of the picture and is led into the distance by means of a path and the course of a river.



The painting was created in 1834, the year B. C. Koekkeok moved to Kleve. Although it is a rather early work, it already combines all the characteristics and quality of this great landscape painter: the masterly perspective, the detailed depiction of nature and the atmosphere. The evening light shimmers slightly golden through the bare and snow-covered branches of a group of trees in the centre and illuminates the few clouds in the sky from below.

A lone farmer drives his loaded mules past a chapel that stands to the left of the path. Koekkeok had by then already found the tone and mood for his paintings, which were to be celebrated throughout Europe.