Winter Diversions on a River

The ice views with figures skating and sledging are among the jolliest paintings of the Golden Age. This small panel by Isaack van Ostade is one such. Young and old are having fun on the ice, in front of an inn.
A woman in the left foreground is selling cakes. A dog helps itself to one of her wares. The many details and the relaxed atmosphere of scenes like this make them very appealing paintings.
Van Ostade painted several of these ice scenes, often reusing the same buildings and figures, like the white horse pulling the sledge (right). The artist, who died at twentyeight, was a younger brother of the painter Adriaen van Ostade.