Ice Scene

painting by Hendrick Avercamp (Museum: Mauritshuis)

This painting shows a typically Dutch phenomenon: having fun on the ice. People are skating, sledging and playing a game called ‘kolf’, a sort of ice hockey. On the left, a group of people have fallen through the ice, but help is already on the way. And just in front of the bridge, a woman has fallen over, revealing her bare bottom.

Avercamp was the first painter in the Northern Netherlands to specialise in winter landscapes. He lived most of his life in Kampen and was deaf and dumb, which is why he was nicknamed ‘The Mute of Kampen’.