River Scene
River Scene
River Scene
By Jan van Goyen
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River Scene
River Scene
River Scene
The expanse of sky, low horizon and dark foreground with a fishing smack create an effect of space. The sunlight on the water and the chiaroscuro contrasts add atmosphere. The church in the background is the Grote or St Laurenskerk in Alkmaar, a building that also appears in other works by Van Goyen. Van Goyen specialized in this kind of river and coastal view – an amalgam of reality and imagination. Hundreds of his paintings have survived, most of them in shades of brown. Born in Leiden, he worked in Haarlem from 1617 to 1618 as a pupil of the landscape painter Esaias van de Velde.