*This painting is sold but the artist is regularly available in our inventory		Lodewijk Johannes Kleijn* 1817 – The Hague – 1897 A River Landscape with Windmill Oil on panel 10 x 13 inches (25.5 x 31.9 cm) Signed: L. J. Kleijn Very little biographical information exists pertaining to Lodewijk Johannes Kleijn. He studied with Andreas Schelfhout in the 1830s, which provided a solid basis for the further development of his landscape paintings. While he absorbed the teachings of his master, the style of his views depicting The Hague is strongly reminiscent of the nineteenth century Dutch romantic school. Our painting depicts an idyllic river scene. A dirt path that begins at the bottom right corner of the picture diagonally bisects the foreground of the composition. Two peasant women strolling leisurely on the path pause to address a fisherman seated on the grassy bank. The village beyond is a convincingly rendered cluster of quaint cottages amidst dense trees and a tall, prominent windmill. The buildings reflect in soft, hazy tones on the surface of an algae covered pond to the left of the path. Three ships glide through the still, glassy surface of the river, their sails lit by the late afternoon sun that illuminates the opposite bank. While landscape is the primary subject, the sky occupies more than half of the painting, which gives the composition a sense of grandeur and openness. Large, white clouds lie low on the horizon, tinged by rose and yellow tones at their edges from the setting sun. Their shapes echo that of the foliage in the landscape below, which provides unity to the composition. While the sky is a luminous blend of pale yellow, blue, white, gray, and pink, it blends harmoniously with the earthy, saturated palette of the landscape and river.