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Two out of three winters in Holland during the 17th century saw particularly extended periods of frosts and snow. During the 1660s the level of snowfall increased significantly and two of the harshest winters were in 1662-63 and 1671-72. Dutch artists, among them Jacob van Ruisdael and Klaes Molenaer produced many winter landscape in this period. Molenaer's winter scenes are characterised by a great interest in the harmony and balance between the figures and their surroundings, more akin to the work of the Haarlem painter of the previous generation, Isack van Ostade, than the atmospheric landscapes of Jacob van Ruisdael.
The landscape elements in the present scene are broadly repeated in other works by Molenaer.
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