Van Goyen?s scene shows the banks of a river at a small village. The river is relatively busy with the traffic of small boats. Such rivers and waterways were vital to the success of the Dutch economy which was based on trade, as they allowed for the easy transportation of goods around the country to the major ports for export. In this scene, small steps lead up from the water to the farmhouses that line the riverbank. Here, Van Goyen departed from his normal practice of using a restricted palette, and introduced a little more colour to the scene. This is visible in the areas of blue sky peeping through the fluffy clouds.
Jan van Goyen (Dutch, 1596 - 1656)
Jan van Goyen was one of the most important and prolific seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painters. His early style reflected that of his teacher, the landscape painter Esaias van de Velde. Both artists shied away from narrative detail in their paintings, and instead focused on the effects of nature upon the Dutch landscape. Gradually, Van Goyen began using a more restricted range of colours, painting in muted tones of grey, green and brown. Often, one colour saturates Van Goyen?s paintings, both dominating and uniting the scene. Van Goyen?s immediate, rapid technique allowed him to paint pictures very quickly. As a result, his output was enormous and he was able to respond to the market demand for landscapes.
