Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters (1608) by Hendrick Avercamp

Winter Landscape with Ice Skaters (1608) by Hendrick Avercamp

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.