Frozen Moat Outside City Walls by Jan Asselijn was created in 1647. The painting is in Worcester Art Museum. The size of the work is 67,3 x 106 cm and is produced as an oil on canvas.
The contrast between the grandeur of the city wall and the stormy sky, and the simple actions of the peasants, dwarfed and chilled by their surroundings, is eloquent. Heavy ramparts of ochry-orange color, crenellations, at left and receeding into center distance; barge moored at embankment, left center; grey wintery sky, broken by areas of light blue; several figures and laden mules proceeding along frozen waterway.
About the Artist
Dutch Golden Age painter Jan Asselijn was born at Dieppe. He received instruction from Esaias van de Velde (1587–1630), and distinguished himself particularly in landscape and animal painting. He traveled in France and Italy, and modeled his style after Bamboccio (Pieter van Laer).
Their marriages brought both Asselijn and Helt-Stockade back to the Netherlands after their travels. Asselijn had a withered hand and was small of stature, which gave him the nickname in France of petit Jean Hollandois, and which gave him the nickname Krabbetje (little claw) in the Bentvueghels.
He seems to have befriended Rembrandt. In the etching that Rembrandt made of him, Asselijn appears in some states to be standing before an easel. His hands are not shown. Frederick de Moucheron, another Italianate landscape painter, was his pupil.
He was one of the first Dutch painters who introduced a fresh and clear manner of painting landscapes in the style of Claude Lorraine. His example was speedily followed by other artists. Asselijn’s pictures were in high estimation at Amsterdam, and several of them are in the museums of that city. Twenty-four, painted in Italy, were engraved.
You can order this work as an art print on canvas from canvastar.com
