*This painting is sold but the artist is regularly available in our inventory		Klaes Molenaer* c. 1630 - Haarlem - 1676 Winter Scene Beside a Frozen River Oil on panel 8 x 10 1/4 inches (20.3 x 26 cm.) Signed: K Molenaer Klaes Molenaer was a landscape and genre painter belonging to the wider circle of Jacob van Ruisdael. He was born in 1630 in Haarlem where he lived and worked most of his life. He was a member of the guild of painters in Haarlem in 1651. In addition to landscapes, he also painted ice and fair scenes, as well as views of the Dutch towns of Delft, Scheveningen, and Egmond-aan-Zee. He was a prolific artist, executing many picturesque winter and summer scenes of canals outside city walls, usually animated by lively figures. In our painting, Molenaer demonstrates his apparent affinity for the depiction of landscape. It is a beautifully expansive painting, though not large in actual size, which creates a convincing sense of both place and time. To the left of the picture stands an old stone cottage, its roof worn down with age and sagging under the weight of the snow. The cottage is perched near the edge of a small bluff, sheltered by trees and surrounded by a low gate. A figure is seen heading up the steep path; more figures gather by the side of the frozen river, lacing skates or filling a wooden sleigh with pieces of loose ice. Still others are skating down the river, avoiding patches of snow collected on the frozen surface. The composition of our picture is structured as to guide the viewer from left foreground to right background. The roof of the cottage falls at an angle, persuading the eye to continue down the sloping bluff towards the edge of the icy river, and then out towards the skating figures and muted architecture beyond. Molenaer’s palette is similarly chosen to direct the viewer in experiencing the scene. The picture is portrayed in an array of warm reds, browns, purple, accented with white for the snow, which lends a quiet tenderness to an otherwise cold and barren landscape. The spaciousness of the painting, as well as the sensuous palette, create a poetic portrait of Haarlem’s winter landscape. The viewer is thus left perhaps wistful for a time when a winter’s day was as poignant as Molenaer’s painting.