National Gallery of Art - THE COLLECTION

Tour: Dutch Landscapes and Seascapes of the 1600s

Overview | Start Tour

image of A Scene on the Ice image of Ships in Distress off a Rocky Coast image of View of Dordrecht from the Dordtse Kil
1 2 3
image of The Travelers image of Moonlit Landscape with Bridge image of Forest Scene
4 5 6
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« back to Dutch and Flemish painting of the 16th-17th centuries

Overview

Seventeenth-century Netherlanders had a passion for depictions of city and countryside, either real or imaginary. Local scenery asserted Holland’s national pride, while vistas of foreign sites recalled the extent of its overseas commerce. Holland’s ocean ports teemed with fishing and trading ships, and the tiny country’s merchant fleet was almost as large as all the rest of maritime Europe’s combined. The Dutch prized seascapes and insisted on accurate renderings of each hull and rigging line. Genre incidents from everyday life animate most Dutch landscapes and seascapes.

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Captions

1.
1Hendrick Avercamp, A Scene on the Ice, c. 1625
2Ludolf Backhuysen, Ships in Distress off a Rocky Coast, 1667
3Jan van Goyen, View of Dordrecht from the Dordtse Kil, 1644
4Meindert Hobbema, The Travelers, 166[2?]
5Aert van der Neer, Moonlit Landscape with Bridge, probably 1648/1650
6Jacob van Ruisdael, Forest Scene, c. 1655
2.
7Pieter Jansz Saenredam, Church of Santa Maria della Febbre, Rome, 1629
8Pieter Jansz Saenredam, Cathedral of Saint John at 's-Hertogenbosch, 1646