1311. A WINTER SCENE.
Jan Beerestraaten (Dutch: 1622-1687).
This painter was the son of a cooper of Amsterdam. He travelled much in Holland, staying in all the towns he visited, and copying their monuments, squares, and thoroughfares, and leaving everywhere on his route a great number of sketches and pictures. He painted Italian views also, but these pictures may have been founded on local sketches by other Dutch artists. "His manner of painting was vigorous; delicate finish and precision of touch were less his aim than freedom of handling combined with broad contrasts of tone, where the colour, of a subdued richness, shows brilliancy and often loses itself in harmonies of gray" (Official Catalogue, and Havard's Dutch School, p. 239).
The castle is that of Muiden, between Amsterdam and Naarden. The fortified village is in the distance. On the left is the Zuyder Zee. Signed in the foreground, and dated 1658.