Hendrick AvercampNetherlandish, 1585–1634Winter landscape with skaters
Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters
Can I see it?
Yes, on view now
Where is “Winter landscape with skaters” now? Rijksmuseum, Room 2.6 · Specialisation in painting, Amsterdam. Yes, on view now. Checked September 29, 2026.
Closed· opens tomorrow at 9:00 AM
On public display.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
Winter Landscape with Skaters is a c.1608 oil-on-oak painting by the Dutch artist Hendrick Avercamp in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
This painting shows ice skaters of all sorts enjoying a day on a frozen river. People dressed up stand among villagers going about their daily chores. A dog chews on a dead carcass in the lower left corner. A boat sails away on a sled in the background as a group of fishermen make efforts to free a frozen sailboat in the foreground. A bird trap is seen to the left among other farm implements and the whole scene is overshadowed by a church to the left.
Read on
Winter Landscape with Skaters is considered one of Avercamp's earliest works, and is painted in a style strongly reminiscent of Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 1565 painting Winter Landscape with Ice skaters and Bird trap. Some aspects of this picture are taken directly from Bruegel's works, such as the wooden "bird trap" which also appears in other works by Avercamp. This painting also shows three ceramic bird traps fixed to the gable of the house. Avercamp was influenced in his subject by the Little Ice Age, particularly the cold winter of 1607–08, and was the first of the Dutch painters to specialise in snow scenes.
The painting is signed at the lower right in the form of graffiti caulked on the fisherman's hut in the foreground.
The painting was acquired by the Rijksmuseum in 1897, with assistance from the Vereniging Rembrandt. It has appeared as a collection highlight in museum catalogs ever since.
In the museum's words
The high vantage point of this painting turns it into a sampler of human – and animal – activity during a harsh winter. Hundreds of people are out on the ice, most of them for pleasure, others working out of dire necessity. Avercamp did not shy away from grim details: in the left foreground crows and a dog feast on the carcass of a horse that has frozen to death.
Rijksmuseum
Details
- Accession number
- SK-A-1718
What it shows
In the catalog
Display history
On view · Room 2.6 · Specialisation in painting
Rijksmuseum · Sep 29, 2026 — now · Verified
Whether it was on view is unknown
Rijksmuseum · Unconfirmed
Sources
- Rijksmuseum
- Image: Rijksmuseum — public domain
In the life of Hendrick Avercamp
The whole life1586–1607 · Workplace
Kampen
1607–1608 · Workplace
Amsterdam
1608
From Amsterdam to Kampen, for good
Having trained in Amsterdam with the Danish-born portraitist Pieter Isaacsz and perhaps with David Vinckboons, a follower of Bruegel the Elder, Avercamp moved to Kampen in 1608 (other accounts say 1613) and lived there until his death. He probably painted in the studio from sketches made in winter, and sold his watercolour-tinted drawings as finished pictures for collectors' albums.
1608–1634 · Workplace
Kampen
![[Der Hl. Franziskus unter einem Baum im Gebet; St. Francis Beneath a Tree Praying; Saint François à genoux], Rembrandt, 1657](https://diglib.hab.de/varia/haum/rembrandt-v3-4592-a/max/000001.jpg)
