Skaters on a Frozen Pond

Landscapes and cityscapes were a very popular art form in the Netherlands during the nineteenth century. Many artists rejected the more classical French landscape, aiming instead for Dutch landscape with rivers and windmills and looked back to the ‘Golden Age’ of the seventeenth century for inspiration. Charles Leickert worked during this period and became known for his landscape and cityscape paintings. He painted the cluttered banks of the Amstel River, a picturesque embankment near a ferry to the city of Dordrecht, and ice scenes with Dutch windmills and skaters.

Leickert’s winter scenes were mostly done on the diagonal, with one or more windmills, to either the left or right. In addition, he made several versions of a painting, in which he changed minor details in the composition or in the figures.