Skating at Sloten, near Amsterdam

Skating at Sloten, near Amsterdam

Skating at Sloten, near Amsterdam
Artist:Johannes Abrahamsz Beerstraten (Dutch, Amsterdam 1622–1666 Amsterdam)
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:36 1/4 x 51 5/8 in. (92.1 x 131.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1911
Accession Number:11.92

Catalogue Entry
Beerstraten drew and painted numerous views in Amsterdam and in nearby villages. The paintings usually feature one prominent building in a snow-dusted landscape, with ice skaters and other figures on a frozen waterway in the foreground. He also recorded views of churches farther afield.
The village of Sloten, on the southwest edge of modern Amsterdam, was incorporated into the city in 1921. The Reformed Church (or Petruskerk) was replaced in the 1860s; its structural problems dated back to 1572, when Spanish troops destroyed a much larger choir than the one seen here (it was rebuilt in the mid-1650s). This painting and a closely related canvas in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, show the church from the north. The church tower of Amstelveen, to the southeast of Sloten, is visible in the left background of the Amsterdam picture.
Thiel (1968) details the differences between the two versions, concluding that the Amsterdam work is more successful in its sense of space and naturalistic handling, and more faithful in its description of the church. However, Beerstraten probably departed from actual appearances to some extent in both paintings. The MMA canvas may represent a shift in emphasis from exclusively topographical concerns to the theme of winter pleasures in the tradition of Hendrick Avercamp (1585–1634).
Both works are probably based on a single drawing made at the site, and could date from the early to mid-1660s. The more straightforward treatment of the subject in the Amsterdam canvas suggests that it was most likely painted first.
[2010; adapted from Liedtke 2007]

Copyright Image
https://images.metmuseum.org