Behind this trio is an elegantly dressed couple, watching the skating scene in front of them. To the right is a woman in dark clothing, a large basket with handles beside her and a jug on her lap. In front of her on the right, five further people stand on the edge of the frozen river, partly cut off by the edge of the bank, so that only the upper part of their bodies is visible. A man on the extreme right stretches out his hand to the woman in front of him, as if receiving something from her.

Before them lies a wide, frozen river with a busy skating scene: a couple, one standing behind the other, a group of four, a boy with a stick; behind the couple someone who has fallen in. Hands raised, he shouts for help. Further to the left, in the middle ground a woman lies on the ice and a man to her right has just fallen down. Behind him one man pushes another in front of him on a sledge, with further people on the ice. On the bank to the left another group of people gazes at the activity on the ice.

A snow-covered hill lies to the left. Before it is a wooden fence with a white willow. Behind the hill and partly concealed by it is a snow-covered village with a church. In the centre background a massive moated castle lies fringed by bare trees. On the right picture edge and partly cut off by it is a tree, a small white willow and two broken tree-stumps. Behind lies an ale-house; through its two windows men can be seen drinking. In the background on the right is the silhouette of a small town with a church. Above this snow-covered winter landscape lies a dramatically clouded sky discharging sharp winter showers.

This superb evocation of Winter, the last of the four seasons, makes reference to an engraving of Winter entertainment by Hieronymus Cock after Hans Bol (copper engraving; see Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten/Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Breughel-Brueghel: Une Famille de Peintres Flamands vers 1600, 1997-8, exh. cat. ed. Klaus Ertz, cat. 122, illus. 1; Klaus Ertz, Pieter Brueghel der Jüngere, Lingen 2000, vol. II, fig. 411).

We know of about twenty paintings by Pieter Brueghel the Younger of this composition, the greater number of which probably originated, as did his other paintings of Seasons of the year, after 1616, because these pictures, in so far as they are signed by the artist, always show the alphabetic sequence BREVGHEL (the “E” before the “V”). Before this period Pieter the Younger signed exclusively with the alphabetic sequence BRVEGHEL (“V” before the “E”).

This very popular landscape genre scene was taken as a theme by many artists of the time, including Abel Grimmer, whose Winter entertainment is in the Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van Belgie, Brussels (panel, 13 x 18 ½ in / 33 x 47cm; Ertz in AK Essen/Vienna 1997,cat. 122, illus.2; Ertz 2000, vol. II, fig. 422).

In these landscapes depicting the seasons, the artists found a characteristic form of expression which harmonized with their awareness of life. The depictions are paintings shaped by folklore, in which people were able to recognize themselves. Today the charm of depictions such as we see in Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s Winter landscape with skaters may reside in the fact that they represent a nostalgic view of times past.

Pieter the Younger is depicting a winter landscape, in which time and place form a unity: the chill of slopes and housetops, of the frozen waters of the moat, the multitude of tiny skating figures, the muffled-up spectators of this activity. He modernizes the disjointed narrative of sixteenth century depictions, made up of sections of varying times and meanings, creating a wintry landscape which, if it were not for the high foreground, would be almost at the very forefront of developments in landscape painting.

Several core scenes in the engraving after Hans Bol are adopted by Pieter the Younger almost wholesale. Both Bol and Breughel depict the man who has just fallen through the ice at the right (a vivid memento mori motif, because his rescue is by no means certain); the flirting young couple very close to the man fallen in, the skating woman behind them, clearly supported by her husband and pulled or rather pushed by her sons, and the couple who have just fallen down.

As in other landscapes of the seasons, here too is a social mix of people is noticeable. In the foreground on the left the viewer finds next to the many peasant types elegantly dressed people, who might be taken for townspeople or, as the moated castle suggests, members of the nobility. What is typical of Pieter the Younger is that he has opened the windows of both castle and ale-house. There people are seen in contact with those on the ice. This warmth and fellow-feeling expressed in small gestures, inconspicuous and yet extremely important for the whole atmosphere, are characteristics of this painter.

Pieter is a gifted story-teller; he paints a genre scene typical of his age and gives us an idea of events contemporary to him, for example people enjoying themselves in winter on the ice or in an ale-house, through the windows of which one can peer inside. These aspects of genre painting, lacking deeper levels of allegory or moral significance, are blended into an exuberant whole.

There are of course in all of Pieter the Younger’s work borrowings from his father’s oeuvre. This winter landscape looks to Pieter Breugel the Elder’s Winter scene before the Antwerp city gate of St George, known only from a copper engraving (Ertz in AK Essen/Vienna 1997, cat.122, illus. 3; Ertz 2000, vol. II, fig. 476). However, in contrast to his father, who often imparted a moral message, the son did not raise a wagging finger. The characteristics peculiar to Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s style are to be found in this Winter landscape with skaters. In addition to the high degree of painterly perfection there is the brushwork which captures each detail in sharp and clear outline and above all the mask-like faces of the figures, typical of this artist; these seem transfixed on the ice (even the falling couple seem strangely immobile) and yet powerfully expressive as caricature. With Pieter the Younger a straight line was hardly ever maintained for any distance, as can be seen in the edges of walls on houses, door- or window-frames. The decorative liveliness of the tree-trunks throughout the picture introduces a certain unrest. This idea of motion is absolutely typical of Pieter the Younger’s late period of creativity, as are the little human scenes on the ice and the drinkers seen through the ale-house windows. The theme of the picture with its winter entertainments was often explored by Pieter the Younger after 1616, probably because not only was it a favourite with collectors but also a favourite with the painter.

The painting can be closely compared with several others by Pieter Brueghel the Younger of around the same date:

1. Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts 1.4. 1987, No. 10
Panel, 16 1/3 x 22 ¾ in / 41.5 x 56.5 cm
Signed upper right: P.BREVGHEL 1621
Literature: Ertz 2000, vol. II, p.601, cat.665, illus.

2. Amsterdam, Gal. De Boer, before 1969
Panel, 15 ¾ x 22 in / 40 x 56 cm
Dated: 1622
Literature: Ertz 2000, vol. II, p.601, cat.666; p.573, fig. 474.

3. Bucharest, Muzeul National de Arta al Romaniei
Panel, 17 ½ x 22 ½ in / 44.8 x 57.4 cm
Signed below left: P. BREVGHEL
Literature: Ertz 2000, vol. II, p.602, cat.672; colour pl.418, p.553

The present painting, however, is distinguished by exceptional delicacy in the depiction of the frozen haze of the distant landscape and by the sky with its wintry showers, making it one of the finest of Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s variants on this theme.

We do not know of a single picture with this theme of a winter landscape which was painted before 1616. The signed pictures are all signed with the spelling ‘BREVGHEL’, which was used after 1616.

The condition of this painting is quite exceptional. It gives a gleaming and fresh impression and is painted using a technique of glazes very characteristic of Flemish paintings, whereby at a late stage in the work white highlights are applied to the uppermost layer of paint.

Information based on a report by Dr Klaus Ertz.