View of Eindhoven from the Northeast

In this scene, Isack van Ostade presented an idealized view of the town of Eindhoven, depicting rustic buildings covered by lacy foliage. His charming vista begins at the right with a rustic house with a thatched roof.

Van Ostade's delicate wash and penwork create a picturesque view of rural Holland. During the 1600s in Holland, genre and landscape pictures became popular with city dwellers wanting to recreate in their own homes their enjoyable experiences in the local countryside. To meet the demand for such subjects artists often made picturesque landscape drawings, like this one, which were sold on the open market.

In his paintings, van Ostade specialized in large-scale summer and winter views of Holland that are usually crowded with figures. Here he instead focused on the charms of the rustic townscape.