Winter Landscape with Skaters

Hendrick Avercamp is famous for having introduced winter landscapes to Dutch painting. His follower in this genre of painting was his nephew Barent, who skilfully imitated his style, and indeed in the case of some works, like this one, it is hard to say which of the two was the artist. The scene contains a whole variety of figures, some of which are made with great naturalism, as we can see in the skater with his hands behind his back, or in the man playing with a spinning top.