An Extensive River Landscape, with Two Sportsmen and their Greyhounds

Artist: Cornelis van der Schalcke (Dutch, c. 1611 - 1671)

Original Dimensions: 39 5/8" x 58 7/8"

Location: National Gallery of Art, London

About Artwork: (About 1659) "In seventeenth-century Holland, artists and viewers alike were fascinated by the Dutch landscape. Pictures of it take many forms – from the down-to-earth farmstead to the softly glowing views inspired by the Italian landscape – but because of the flat terrain, many convey the sense of vast space that opens to the eye from even the smallest of hills. Close to us, two men take a rest from catching rabbits with their skinny dogs. More men sit on the bank, while below them a team of six horses trundle a coach out of the forest. But the eye is constantly taken from the hill slopes in the foreground into the distance, softly lit by a break in the clouds overhead. One horizontal line after another crossing the picture should have the effect of making us stop to see what we can find in between, but even the silvery band of the river isn't a barrier between us and the far off horizon." - (National Gallery of Art, London)