Jan Peeters, Winter Landscape on the Coast with Sledges

by Atelier Liesjes

A snow-covered stretch of coastline extends down to a calm, grey-green sea. At the bottom left, a group of figures walks across the white ground: a man in blue with a red hat points towards the sea; beside him stand women in brightly coloured skirts and a child; a dog sniffs amongst them. Further on, ships with tall masts lie along the water’s edge, their sails hoisted, and more figures walk along the beach. On the right stands a wooden sledge, pulled by a horse and an ox, laden with baskets and barrels, accompanied by a man with a stick. Above the sea rises a rocky coastline with a dilapidated castle, beside which a Dutch flag flutters. At the edge on the right towers the trunk of a plane tree with bare branches.
The sky is the true subject: heavy, almost black clouds shift and overlap, but on the left a cold, yellow-white light breaks through, casting a glow over the ice, the snow and the sails. Peeters paints with loose, swift brushstrokes and a wide range of browns and greys, from warm ochre to cool slate grey, with red, blue and yellow accents in the clothing that keep the small format lively. It is a winter scene in the tradition of Flemish coastal and ice landscapes, in which the season serves primarily as a backdrop for human activity: trade, transport and gazing curiously out to sea.
Jan Peeters (Antwerp 1624 – Antwerp 1678) was a marine painter and draughtsman, and in 1654 became a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. He mainly painted coastal scenes, storms and harbour cityscapes, usually small in size and featuring figures that set the scale of the landscape. Such winter paintings were popular as collector’s items and were often produced in series. An atmospheric, small winter painting for a room with a sea view.