With its low horizon and deeply receding space this is a characteristic composition by Aert van der Neer. Known for painting twilight and night scenes, Van der Neer also produced a number of winter scenes, featuring snowy landscapes, frozen rivers and people skating and playing 'kolf' (a type of hockey) on the ice. The sites depicted in this picture cannot be identified. Usually Van der Neer's landscapes were not intended to be topographically accurate.
