Aert van der Neer

Aert van der Neer
Gorinchem 1603/1604 – 1677 Amsterdam, School
Night Landscape
Oil on oak
48.5 x 63.5 cm

Aert van der Neer is one of the great masters of Dutch landscape painting of the 17th century and specialized in moonlight and winter landscapes in particular. His paintings are characterized by subtle lighting, finely tuned tonal values and a calm, poetic mood. He was particularly fascinated by the interplay of natural light – such as the glow of the moon – and man-made light sources such as fires or lanterns. He was a master at creating landscapes not only as topographical spaces, but also as emotional scenes in which light and dark engage in a silent dialog.
The present painting from his circle shows an atmospherically dense night landscape that impressively captures this spirit. A fire is blazing in the right foreground, around which several people have gathered – their silhouettes are illuminated by the flickering fire, which forms a warm contrast to the cool, moonlit landscape. On the left, a body of water stretches into the depths, with a mill on its banks. In the background, a large full moon shines in the sky – a central motif in van der Neer’s work – its pale light traversing a wide, almost siren-like waterscape with gentle clarity.
A mighty tree, positioned slightly to the right of the center of the picture, forms the compositional antithesis to the moon and divides the picture into two halves: On one side, the bustling, earthly activity by the fire; on the other, the still, reflective expanse of water, almost enraptured in its nocturnal tranquillity. This juxtaposition of man and nature, warmth and coolness, closeness and distance is typical of van der Neer’s pictorial language.
Night landscapes such as these captivate the viewer with their mysterious lighting and meditative calm. They invite us to linger, to contemplate in silence – and open up a world in which the invisible, the atmospheric, is just as important as the visible.