Johan de Lagoor (or Jan Lagoor), who painted very high-quality landscapes, is very little known nowadays. His professional activity took place in Haarlem, where he was recorded as having lived between 1645 and 1653, and in Amsterdam, between 1657 and 1660. His works have been confused with those of more famous figures of his generation who, as he did, specialised in paintings of Nature in which the composition and the small range of colours served to give the landscapes their special unity and beauty.
In this picture, the golden tones of the light and the interest in Nature’s rhythms, as seen in the group of trees at the left of the composition, in the geometrical forms of the fields and in the striking cloud formations, are all reminders of Ruisdael, although the tone of Lagoor’s works is somewhat less dramatic. Other features of Johan de Lagoor’s view of landscapes are his preference for sweeping vistas and his ability to offer a majestic interpretation of Nature.
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