Kampen, circa 1610. The water has frozen and the entire village gathers on the ice. Hendrick Avercamp, nicknamed the “Mute of Kampen,” transforms this winter setting into a life-size theater where each character tells a story.
A Mosaic of Lives on the Ice
Observe this motley crowd bustling on the frozen canal. In the foreground, an elegant skater sports a plumed top hat. Couples glide hand in hand. Some play kolf, the ancestor of ice hockey. A woman washes her laundry in a hole, near a half-submerged boat. The humorous touch? That fallen skater, skirt raised, exposing her bare bottom. But Avercamp also paints danger: four people have fallen through the ice, rescuers arrive with a ladder. The painting meticulously captures each costume, each gesture, revealing all social classes united.
The Little Ice Age as Inspiration
This work emerges during the Little Ice Age that struck northern Europe from 1550 to 1850. Between 1600 and 1700, two-thirds of Dutch winters were extremely harsh. Navigation became impossible, public life paralyzed. Avercamp painted these extreme winters between 1600 and 1625, the period of the most intense cold. This winter landscape tradition has its roots in Pieter Bruegel the Elder and 16th-century Flemish painting.
Hendrick Avercamp, Pioneer of the Winter Genre
Avercamp (1585-1634) was the first artist to specialize in Dutch ice scenes. Deaf since childhood, he developed an acute sense of visual observation. Trained in Amsterdam, he returned to Kampen where he created his characteristic winter panoramas.
Think about it
💭 When have you felt that collective joy of a suspended moment, where an entire community shares the same instant?
About This Work
- Ice Scene
- Hendrick Avercamp
- circa 1610
- Oil on panel
- 36 × 71 cm
- Mauritshuis, The Hague
- https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/our-collection/artworks/785-ice-scene
