GOYEN, Jan van
(b. 1596, Leiden, d. 1656, Den Haag)

View of the Haarlemmermeer

1646
Oil on panel, 35 x 51 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Like Jacob van Ruisdael, Van Goyen painted sky for the most part, in this case a sombre mass of clouds. The landscape, offering a view of the watery area near Haarlem called the Haarlemmermeer, is painted in several closely related shades of brown, ochre-yellow, blue, and green. The tonal colour scheme contributes to the specifically Dutch atmosphere of this landscape, in which sky and water form the most important elements.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.