Hendrick Avercamp

Hendrick Avercamp painted the Netherlands on ice. His winter scenes are packed with people skating, sledding, playing kolf, chatting and falling over, all spread across a frozen river or canal under a pale sky. Each figure is a small story in its own right.

He was born in Amsterdam in 1585 and trained under the portrait painter Pieter Isaacsz. In 1608 he moved to Kampen, where he was known as “the mute of Kampen” because he could not speak. He produced around a hundred paintings, often working in the studio from sketches made outdoors in winter. His scenes owe something to Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and he used softening colour to create a sense of distance. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Mauritshuis in The Hague hold his best works. He died in Kampen in 1634.

In A Scene on the Ice, take time with the small figures. There are jokes and accidents hidden everywhere.