A Saw-mill by a Torrent
- Artist: Allart van Everdingen
- Date: about 1670
- Medium: oil on wood
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
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About this artwork
"A Saw-mill by a Torrent" painted in the style of Allart van Everdingen, Dutch artist from Haarlem. This painting was created around 1670 using oil on wood. The artist has made little of the wheel that marks the cottage as a mill, concentrating on the mood created by the water and the colours of the surrounding landscape. Many watermills were being abandoned at this time in Holland; perhaps the artist was suggesting that this one too has outlived its usefulness. A chill day is shown here, but there’s no smoke coming from the mill’s chimney. The warm tones of the grass seem at odds with the grey sky promising rain and the harsh contours of the distant hills. In the foreground, a young oak tree frames the picture, seeming to hold the mill in the curve of its slender trunk. Beneath the steep bank on which it stands, a few sheep graze under the watchful eye of a woman in a blue dress, who may be lost in the layers of varnish that darken the picture.
See it in person
A Saw-mill by a Torrent 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.
