Artist info: Aert van der Neer is best known for his nocturnal landscapes and winter scenes. His mastery of light effects is revealed in his many darkened landscapes lit by a full moon or a burning building as well as by his sensitivity to the appearance of light on water and ice. According to one of his earliest biographers, Arnold Houbraken, van der Neer worked as a steward for some years while living in or near Gorkum. By 1630 he had moved to Amsterdam where he devoted himself to painting, and where his son, the figure and portrait painter, Eglon Hendrick van der Neer, was born. Van der Neer kept an inn in Amsterdam from 1659. He was declared bankrupt in 1662.