Landscape with cattle

A landscape dominated by a cluster of tall trees, figures and cattle wade through the marshy waters below. Jan Wijnants [Wynants], (ca. 1635- 1684) was a Dutch landscape painter from Haarlem. By December 1660 Wijnants was in Amsterdam, where he remained for the rest of his life. Wijnants followed in the tradition of dune painting established by Pieter de Molijn, Philips Wouwerman, van Ruisdael and others. Typical of his early work of the 1660s is Landscape with Cattle (1661; London, Wallace). A sense of space is created in the left half of the picture by the pattern of the trees and meandering, ribbon-like paths that diminish as they recede into the distance. Sunlight falls naturally on fields and dunes, highlighting at strategic points the blond tones of the sand.