An Extensive Landscape with a Road by a River
- Artist: Philips Koninck
- Date: 1655
- Medium: oil on canvas
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is "An Extensive Landscape with a Road by a River" painted in the Dutch tradition by Philips Koninck. What's remarkable about this painting is how effectively it conjures up an illusion of a vast panorama unfolding before us. Koninck achieved this by using two techniques to create a sense of depth and space.
First, he used a technique that was innovative for its time - making the figure in the middle ground the most prominent feature. By doing so, the landscape around him appears more detailed than both the foreground and far distance. This is actually how our eyes work when we gaze into the distance; we focus on one point and the rest blurs slightly.
Koninck also took a more conventional approach to creating a sense of space by depicting ripple-like horizontals formed by the hedges, fields, patches of water, and distant hills. These seem to form a series of low waves spreading out from the long flat horizon. What's striking is that there are no vertical lines to disrupt them or frame the edges of the panorama.
What's also worth noting is that the figures in this landscape aren't painted to scale. The man walking in the middle ground, for instance, should be smaller than the shepherd playing his pipe behind him. This suggests that Koninck was experimenting with optical effects, trying to replicate how our eyes work when we gaze into the distance.
The painting's execution also plays a key role in creating this sense of depth and space. The leaves on the trees and shrubs, sheep, and buildings are carefully articulated at a certain distance, while broader brushstrokes suggest the foreground nearest us. This blurring effect is especially noticeable on the top edge of the bank below the middle figure.
The date of this painting is 1655, when landscape art was becoming increasingly popular in Europe. It's an oil-on-canvas masterpiece that demonstrates Koninck's skill and innovative approach to creating a sense of space and depth on canvas.
See it in person
An Extensive Landscape with a Road by a River 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.
