Ice Skating Scene

This painting is one of the favourites at the Bertrand museum due to its size and the subject matter, depicted with precision and bathed in gentle light.

Andreas Schelfhout was nicknamed the Claude Lorrain of Winter Landscapes, and brought the painting of ice to its peak. He was one of the central figures of the La Haye school in the first half of the 19th century.

Worked in a cool and bright color harmony where the adamantine clarity of the ice blends with the blues of winter, this scene of everyday life on the canals of La Haye bears strong marks of the influences the painter was subjected to during his stay in Paris.

This landscape is an idealistic expression of a winter day, made transcendent by the magic of a setting sun. The poetry of this panorama harkens back to the compositions of the middle of the century, but its great size foretells of the monumental paintings of the later years of the painter's career.

From the texts of Sandrine Le Bideau in the catalog Flemish and Dutch paintings–Collection of the Châteauroux museums (Peintures flamande et hollandaise–Collection des musées de Châteauroux) Somogy-Editions d'Art.