About the Artist

Was one of the most significant landscape painters of the Baroque period and a leading representative of Haarlem ceramic painting. He was educated in Haarlem by a variety of painters. After a study trip through France in 1615, he worked in Haarlem with the landscape painter Esasias van de Velde. After reaching the status of master, he was accepted into the St Luke's guild in Leiden in 1618. After 1631 he worked in the Hague. Probably because of the various careers he pursued, he travelled extensively throughout Holland. At the beginning of his artistic career, van Goyen painted mainly landscapes with folk scenes using quickly and thickly applied robust colours. He later returned to the more abstract and reduced his palette to gray, green and brown tones. He eventually strengthened the contrast of colour, although his pictures remained mainly monochromatic. Important works of the artist include Dune Landscape, c 1633, Kunthistoriches Museum, Vienna; Farmstead on the River, 1636, Alta Pinakothek Munich; and View of Leiden, 1643, Alta Pinakothek Munich.