Wooded Landscape

A colossal tree extending beyond the top of the sheet dominates this forest interior. The tree bends sharply leftward, its craggy branches forming a decorative canopy of leaves. To its left, a more modestly scaled and more lightly rendered tree almost appears to recoil away from its towering companion. But even the smallest trees reach well above the cluster of peasants standing in front of a thatched roof cottage. One figure in this group points toward the luminous glade in the middle distance.

Near the end of his career, Paulus van Liender produced a series of drawings of wooded landscapes, including this large work, for which he became best known. The forests around Utrecht and Haarlem could have inspired this work of art but the careful arrangement of trees and foliage and decorative patterning of light and shadow, suggest that the scene was a product of Van Liender's imagination.