Circle of David Vinckboons (Mechelen 1576-1633 Amsterdam)

Though the identity of the artist responsible for the present ice scene is yet unknown, its charm is unmistakable. Certain compositional details would suggest that it is by a painter intimately familiar with the work of the Flemish-born Amsterdam artist David Vinckboons. In addition to the repoussoir trees at left and right, a favored compositional device in Vinckboons’s work, the artist must have been familiar with a Vinckboons composition known today through an etching published by Cornelis Jansen circa 1602 (see P. Roelofs, "The Paintings: The Dutch on the Ice", in Hendrick Avercamp: Master of the Ice Scene, ed. P. Roelofs, Amsterdam, 2009, p. 38, fig. 22). The central structure in the background and the skating couple just right of center in the foreground of the painting repeat, in reverse, those of the print.