A Landscape with a River by a Wood
- Artist: Cornelis Vroom
- Date: 1626
- Medium: oil on wood
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is "A Landscape with a River by a Wood" painted in the Italian north. The artist, Cornelis Vroom, was known for his innovative approach to landscape painting. Instead of using trees as a frame for an attractive view, he focuses on the wood itself.
The low vegetation, river bank, and glimpse of a sandy track catching the evening light form a deep foreground. Meanwhile, the fields in the background become a distant view stretching behind the wood. The trees are backlit with a bright sky, creating heavy shadows that allow Vroom to explore the effects of light filtering through leaves.
Note how the painter has used tiny brushstrokes and subtle shades of green and brown to evoke the sun catching the treetops, the gaps in the canopy, or being lost altogether in the wood's depths. The presence of a few tiny figures - an oarsman and two hunched passengers in a skiff, as well as two cows under the canopy's edge - reminds us that this is not just a natural landscape but also one where human activity exists.
The rough picket fence along the edge of the wood and the tower of what appears to be a neglected windmill on the knoll in the distance are signs of human presence, albeit subtle ones. This painting was made in 1626 using oil on wood.
See it in person
A Landscape with a River by a Wood hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
