Although Jan Steen was not a landscape painter, he showed interest in the genre in the earlier stages of his career and produced a number well-known paintings, such as Winter Landscape. The painting depicts a busy winter day and people going about their daily activities on ice and land. In terms of composition, Steen broke up the ice with a patch of land, which gave a sense of depth to the landscape unfolding in the left half of the picture.
Unlike many Dutch painters who chose to specialize in portraiture, genre painting, still life or landscape, Steen experimented with a variety subjects throughout his career. Therefore, his period of landscape painting is a testament to his expertise and artistic range. According to Steen’s biographers, the artist studied under several painters. In Utrecht, he was a pupil of Nicolaes Knüpfer, who was known for painting biblical and literary themes. His interest in landscape is likely related to his time with Adriaen van Ostade in Haarlem, and Jan van Goyen in The Hague, who later became his father in-law. Winter Landscape melds influences from different artists. Most evidently it draws inspiration from the art of Isaak van Ostade, who was the brother of Adriaen van Ostade and part of the same studio. The slightly earlier Winter Landscape (1645) by Isack van Ostade shares some important elements with Steen’s version. The two paintings have a diagonal composition and the silhouetted figures on the ice. There is also similar lighting defining the path to the bridge in each of the paintings.
Winter Landscape is probably the most traditional landscape painting made by Steen. In his art, Steen had a tendency to emphasize the narrative aspect of the painting, and in other landscape paintings such as, Village Festival with the Ship of Saint Rijn Uijt (ca.1653) the figures are more dominant in the overall settings. In Winter Landscape there are some clearly defined figures, while others are merely silhouettes executed in a sketchy style. In the foreground left of the center, there is a well-dressed couple looking at the activities. They are a motif that appears in other paintings by Steen, like Village Fair (ca. 1650-1651) and Peasant Wedding (1672). In Winter Landscape, the pair wearing North Holland costumes in the left foreground is modeled after the work of Hendrick Avercamp in Winter Scene on a Frozen Canal (ca. 1620), that features the same characters in the second row of figures.
Although the precise date of the painting is not confirmed, it is known that Winter Landscape was listed in a 1651 sale in The Hague. It was bought by Harald Appelboom, the agent of Karl Gustav Wrangel, the Swedish statesman and military commander. As a result it seems likely that Winter Landscape was painted with the intention of being sold at the open market. After Wrangler’s death in 1676, the painting was passed to his eldest daughter who followed her father’s wishes to preserve his estate, the Skokloster Castle in Sweden. The painting is on display at the castle to this day.
