Winter Scene: skaters on a canal

Gerrit Hendrik Göbell, artist

1786–1833

Winter Scene: skaters on a canal, 1824

Where object was made: Netherlands

Material/technique: oil; canvas

Dimensions:
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 39.1 x 50.8 cm
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 15 3/8 x 20 in
Frame Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 21 3/4 x 23 1/2 in

Credit line: William Bridges Thayer Memorial

Accession number: 0000.1259

Not on display

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In the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, the Netherlands saw an economic and cultural revival reminiscent in some ways of their renowned 17th-century Golden Age. Göbell and many other Dutch artists of the early 19th century took the opportunity to celebrate their cultural heritage by revisiting many of the familiar, local subjects favored by their predecessors, as demonstrated
by this rural ice-skating scene. Skating on the canals remains a popular winter activity today in the low countries, and the subject has long been a favorite of Dutch and Flemish painters and printmakers, notably Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525–1569) and Hendrick Avercamp (1585–1634). Even the shabby, antiquated houses lining the banks of the picture’s frozen waterway resemble the architecture of centuries past, and the painting’s rural setting allows Göbell to avoid any obvious indication of the rapidly industrializing modern world. In the early 19th-century, wealthy American collectors prized the work of Dutch and Flemish old masters, and a traditional Netherlandish scene such as this would have been an attractive object.