Aert van der Neer (1603/04-1677) spent his youth in Arkel near Gorinchem (Gorkum), a town on the river Waal, east of Dordrecht. He moved to Amsterdam in about 1632 and remained there for the rest of his life. He was best known for moonlight landscapes and winter scenes. The chronology of van der Neer's oeuvre is far from easy to determine however his earliest work seems to date from 1642 and the latest from 1665.
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This painting is a good example of a contemporary imitation of Aert van der Neer's art that was much praised during his lifetime and is featured in the catalogue raisonné (Wolfgang Schulz, 2002) of the artist as a probable 17th-century imitation. Despite the monogram, AVN lower left, which lines look heavier than usual, this painting does not seem to be by Aert van der Neer himself: the tree's foliage is not as accurate as it usually is and the figures are hardly readable. Moreover the silhouette of the city view in the background is not as delineated as it should be. However the play of light, its reflection on water and the distribution of light and darkness are interesting and follow Aert van der Neer's essential characteristics.
The sky is the source of light contrasted by dark browns and greyish blue tones with reddish-brown touches that are typical of Aert van der Neer's palette of the 1650s. Aert van der Neer was much imitated during his lifetime although the taste in Amsterdam changed in the second half of the 1660s. His production then decreased and he had further financial difficulties that led him to die in misery.
