Abel Grimmer

Abel Grimmer painted the Flemish countryside in simple, orderly compositions: villages, frozen rivers with skaters, harvest fields and cycles of the seasons and months, with small, neatly stylised figures and clear, harmonious colour.

He was born in Antwerp around 1570, the son and pupil of the painter Jacob Grimmer, and became a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1592. His work follows on from Pieter Bruegel the Elder, whose seasonal scenes he often adapted, and he also painted church interiors. His paintings are in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels. He died around 1620.

A Winter Landscape with Skaters on a Frozen River shows his tidy, Bruegel inspired view of village life.