PIETER DE MOLIJN (LONDON 1595-1661 HAARLEM)

Pieter Molijn played a crucial role in the development of seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painting, creating innovative naturalistic views that ushered in the groundbreaking 'tonal' landscapes of Jan van Goyen, to whom the present work was formerly attributed, and Salomon van Ruysdael. Unlike his predecessors, who depicted dramatic, fantastical landscapes using bright areas of colour, Molijn captured Haarlem's indigenous dunes using a restricted palette of browns, tans and greys. The present picture, showing figures along a riverbank near Haarlem, is constructed through bands of light and shade with Molijn's signature strong diagonal emphasis, adding depth to the composition.