Hendrick Avercamp

Ice-Skating in a Village

c. 1610

Inscriptions

  • signature, in ligated monogram, on the left on a tree:H.A.

Technical notes

The support consists of two oak planks with a horizontal grain and is bevelled on all sides. The panel might have been cut down a few millimetres at the top, where there is a line that was scratched in the wet paint. There is an off-white ground and a warm yellow imprimatura. A very sketchy underdrawing in black chalk indicates the outlines of the farmhouses, which were reserved in the sky. The farmhouses, landscape and ice were painted first, and the figures were then painted on top. Lines have been scratched in the wet paint of the vegetation, possibly with the butt end of the brush.

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: I. Verslype, RMA, 13 december 2004

Condition

Good. The figures are well preserved; the ice and the sky are slightly abraded along the grain of the panel.

Conservation

  • J.J. Susijn, Mauritshuis, 1984: complete restoration

Provenance

...; collection Dirck Semeyns van Loosen (1696-1757) and Maria Bontekoning (1713-86), Enkhuizen;1Ekkart 1998a, p. 10. by descent through the families van Loosen and Snouck van Loosen to Pieter Opperdoes Alewijn (1800-85), Hoorn;2Ekkart 1998a, pp. 9-10. his sale, Amsterdam (C.S. Roos), 28 April 1875, no. 1 (sale not held); his niece, Jonkvrouw Maria Margaretha Snouck van Loosen (1807-85), Enkhuizen; her sale, Enkhuizen (F. Muller), 29 April 1886, no. 5, fl. 315, to the museum, through the mediation of the dealer C.S. Roos; on loan to the Mauritshuis, The Hague, since 1924

ObjectNumber: SK-A-1320

The artist

Biography

Hendrick Avercamp (Amsterdam 1585 - Kampen 1634)

The eldest son of the apothecary Barent Hendricksz Avercamp and Beatrix Peters Vekemans, Hendrick Avercamp was baptized in the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam on 25 January 1585. In 1586 his father became the town apothecary of Kampen, and the family moved there. As Hendrick was deaf and dumb from birth, he was commonly known as ‘de Stom’ or ‘de Stomme’ (‘the mute’). Since one of the buyers at the studio sale of Pieter Isaacsz in Amsterdam in 1607 is mentioned as ‘de stom tot Pieter Isacqs’ (‘the mute at Pieter Isaacsz’s’), it is thought that Avercamp was sent to Amsterdam to live and study with the history and portrait painter Pieter Isaacsz (1569-1625), who returned to his native Denmark in that year. By January 1613, but probably earlier, Avercamp must have returned to Kampen, where he remained for the rest of his life. Shortly before his mother died, she expressed in her will her concern about her unmarried eldest son Hendrick, who she called ‘stom en miserabel’ (‘mute and miserable’). Hendrick was buried on 15 May 1634 in the Bovenkerk (or St Nicolaaskerk) in Kampen.

Avercamp mainly painted winter scenes, called ‘wintertjes’ in the 17th century. His early paintings, dated 1608 and 1609, show the influence of Flemish landscape painters like Hans Bol, Gillis van Coninxloo and David Vinckboons, and a strong interest in narrative details in the tradition of Pieter Brueghel. The Flemish influence becomes less noticeable in his later works, with the horizon lines being lower and the perspective more natural. Although best known for his winter landscape paintings, he also drew several and painted a few summer and river landscapes. Hendrick Avercamp was a prolific draughtsman, mostly in pen, chalk and watercolour, creating figure studies for his paintings and fully worked-out drawings as detailed as his paintings. The latter drawings were probably intended for sale. Paintings by artists such as Arent Arentsz (1585/86-1631), Adam van Breen (c. 1585-after 1642), Antonie Verstralen (c. 1594-1641) and Hendrick’s nephew Barent Avercamp (1612/13-79) strongly resemble his work, but it is unclear whether those artists were taught by him or simply imitated his work.

Jan Piet Filedt Kok, 2007

References
Benezit in Thieme/Becker II, 1908, pp. 276-77; Welcker 1933, pp. 33-71; Blankert in Amsterdam-Zwolle 1982, pp. 15-36; Hensbroek in Saur V, 1992, pp. 728-29; Hensbroek in Turner 1996, II, pp. 854-55

Entry

Whereas the influence of Flemish winter scenes still permeates the slightly earlier Winter Landscape with Ice-skaters (SK-A-1718), the horizon in this painting has been lowered considerably and the number of buildings and figures has been reduced. All the same, with its farmhouses looking like stage sets to the left and right,3Reference is often made to the prints by the Master of the Small Landscapes published by Hieronymus Cock in 1561 as the models for these farmhouses; see De Bruyn Kops in Amsterdam etc. 1987, p. 258. and a tree as a repoussoir in the foreground, the painting still has the rather theatrical look of landscapes by David Vinckboons.4Such as the Landscape with Frozen Canal, Skaters and Ice-boats attributed to him; see Amsterdam etc. 1987, p. 510, no. 111, on which the version dated 1611 by Adam van Breen in the Rijksmuseum (SK-A-2510) must have been based. The drawbridge between the two banks lined with houses is a central motif, and beyond that there is a distant view to the silhouette of a town on the horizon.5The drawbridge is a motif known from the work of Esaias van de Velde, and it returns in some of Avercamp’s later paintings; see De Bruyn Kops in Amsterdam etc. 1987, pp. 257-59, no. 6.

The frozen waterway beneath a grey sky in this peasant village is the setting for a lively scene on the ice. An elegantly attired gentleman (a soldier, perhaps?) comes skating towards the viewer in the foreground, several couples glide across the ice, and a boy propels himself along in a sledge. The daily routine of life also carries on, with a woman doing her washing in a hole in the ice, a man slowly making his way along, bowed down by the bundle of reeds on his back, and wood is being chopped on the right bank. A peasant comes hurrying across with a ladder on the left to rescue the four people who have fallen through the ice, and in front of the bridge a woman has fallen over exposing her buttocks.6This detail was borrowed from Pieter Brueghel’s print, Skaters by St George’s Gate in Antwerp; illustrated in The Hague 2001, p. 17, fig. 5.

The painting was executed in thin, transparent paint layers with great attention to detail. Avercamp took particular trouble over the reflections of the tree, bridge and figures on the ice. The distant view in the background is suggested with minimal resources, much like a watercolour.

Bredius had described this as a very early work in his report on its sale.7Bredius 1885, col. 644. The likely date is c. 1610, given the similarities to Avercamp’s paintings dated 1608 and 1609.8In the Kunstmuseum, Bergen, Norway, and formerly in Lugano respectively; see Welcker 1979, p. 203, nos. S 3 and S 4, figs. 1 and 21; Amsterdam-Zwolle 1982, pp. 72-75, nos. 1-2. There are a few mediocre copies of the painting.9See coll. cat. The Hague 1980, p. 4, and another signed A. Verstralen, panel, 22.3 x 33.5 cm, with Galerie Friederike Pallamar, Vienna, 1969; note RMA.

Jan Piet Filedt Kok, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 11.

Literature

Welcker 1933, p. 204, no. S 16, p. 220, no. S 231; Welcker 1979, p. 206, no. S 16; Broos in coll. cat. The Hague 1987, pp. 29-33, no. 4; De Bruyn Kops in Amsterdam etc. 1987, pp. 257-59, no. 6; Van Suchtelen in The Hague 2001, no. 5, p. 158, with earlier literature

Collection catalogues

1887, p. 4, no. 36; 1903, p. 35, no. 391; 1976, p. 91, no. A 1320; 2007, no. 11

Citation

J.P. Filedt Kok, 2007, 'Hendrick Avercamp, Ice-Skating in a Village, c. 1610', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5852

(accessed 26 April 2025 19:27:38).

Footnotes

  • 1Ekkart 1998a, p. 10.
  • 2Ekkart 1998a, pp. 9-10.
  • 3Reference is often made to the prints by the Master of the Small Landscapes published by Hieronymus Cock in 1561 as the models for these farmhouses; see De Bruyn Kops in Amsterdam etc. 1987, p. 258.
  • 4Such as the Landscape with Frozen Canal, Skaters and Ice-boats attributed to him; see Amsterdam etc. 1987, p. 510, no. 111, on which the version dated 1611 by Adam van Breen in the Rijksmuseum (SK-A-2510) must have been based.
  • 5The drawbridge is a motif known from the work of Esaias van de Velde, and it returns in some of Avercamp’s later paintings; see De Bruyn Kops in Amsterdam etc. 1987, pp. 257-59, no. 6.
  • 6This detail was borrowed from Pieter Brueghel’s print, Skaters by St George’s Gate in Antwerp; illustrated in The Hague 2001, p. 17, fig. 5.
  • 7Bredius 1885, col. 644.
  • 8In the Kunstmuseum, Bergen, Norway, and formerly in Lugano respectively; see Welcker 1979, p. 203, nos. S 3 and S 4, figs. 1 and 21; Amsterdam-Zwolle 1982, pp. 72-75, nos. 1-2.
  • 9See coll. cat. The Hague 1980, p. 4, and another signed A. Verstralen, panel, 22.3 x 33.5 cm, with Galerie Friederike Pallamar, Vienna, 1969; note RMA.