The Pleasures Of Ice – Attributed To Klaes Molenaer (c. 1630–1676)

Oil on oak panel. 17th-century Dutch School attributed to Klaes Molenaer.
On a frozen waterway, at the entrance to a peaceful little town in Holland with simple stone houses and a picturesque church, a crowd gathers to enjoy the pleasures of skating. Some, wearing their skates, skate away toward the other bank of the estuary, while others push sleds, and a harnessed horse serves as a carriage. Some are chatting, others are trading, and on the right side of the composition, a rectangular hole in the ice allows others to fish. Our panorama, despite the palpable harshness of winter, is joyfully animated, in a style and color palette characteristic of Klaes Molenaer. The artist, who likely studied under his older brother Jan Miense Molenaer in Amsterdam, created his first known and dated work in 1644. Stylistically, he is associated with the Haarlem school of painting, in the circle of Jacob Isaacksz, van Ruisdael, and Thomas Heeremans.

Our winter landscape is set within a casseta frame of blackened and silvered wood, the silver plating amplifying the impression of cold in the scene.
Dimensions: 33 x 46.5 cm – 49 x 62 cm with the frame

Klaes (or Nicolaes) Molenaer (Haarlem 1630 – Id. 1676) was the youngest of a family of painters. While his older brother Jan Miense Molenaer excelled in genre painting, and his second brother Bartholomeus specialized in tavern interior scenes, Klaes built his reputation on his winter landscape paintings. He was admitted to the Guild ofSaint Luke in 1651.