Winter Landscape with a Man Crossing
c. 1660
Medium
Black chalk, over translucent and opaque watercolors, with touches of white chalk (recto) and pen and brown ink ledger (verso) on off-white laid paper, incised for transfer
Dimensions
19.7 × 15.8 cm (7 13/16 × 6 1/4 in.)
Classification
charcoal
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
192875
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
At first glance, this drawing seems unremarkable in its choice of subject. A man crosses a bridge on a winter day, with humble structures and trees behind him. But the artist described the scene with such a broad range of colors, further elaborated with white chalk, that he imparted a sense of magic to the routines of daily life.
About the Artist
Anthonie Waterloo · 1609–1690
Anthonie Waterloo (1609–1690) was a prominent Dutch Golden Age landscape artist, born on May 6 in Lille, then part of the Spanish Netherlands. Little is known of his early life beyond his mother, Magdalena Vaillant, who joined Amsterdam's Walloon Church in 1621, with Waterloo following in 1630; no records exist of formal training, and he was likely self-taught. Registered as a painter in Amsterdam...