''Nordic Landscape with a Castle on a Hill'' is a circa 1660

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest ...

by the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

Golden Age painter

Allaert van Everdingen Allaert van Everdingen (, bapt. 18 June 16218 November 1675 (buried)), was a Dutch Golden Age painter and printmaker in etching and mezzotint. Biography Van Everdingen was born at Alkmaar, the son of a government clerk. He and his older br ...

. It is on display in the Musée des Beaux-Arts of

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label= Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label= Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the ...

, France. Its inventory number is 560. This imposing Dutch

landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compo ...

– the largest of its kind in the Strasbourg collection, although among 17th-century landscape paintings there, the Italian

Rosa Rosa or De Rosa may refer to: People *Rosa (given name) * Rosa (surname) *Santa Rosa (female given name from Latin-a latinized variant of Rose) Places *223 Rosa, an asteroid * Rosa, Alabama, a town, United States * Rosa, Germany, in Thuringia, ...

's '' Landscape with Tobias and the Angel'' is even larger – was bought in Paris in 1905 by , on behalf on the museum, and entered the collection in 1908. Its previous history is not known. Van Everdingen had travelled to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

in 1644, and several of his subsequent landscape paintings, such as the Strasbourg one, are inspired by motives such as hills and mountains, torrents and lakes, forests and skies, as he had seen them there. Only the castle on the hill is not

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and S ...

n. The Strasbourg painting does not depict a specific place but aggregates different naturalistic elements into a coherent and intimidating whole. This kind of landscape painting was much admired and emulated by the German Nordic school of the early 19th century, most notably by

Caspar David Friedrich Caspar David Friedrich (5 September 1774 – 7 May 1840) was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landsca ...

and

Johan Christian Dahl Johan Christian Claussen Dahl (24 February 178814 October 1857), often known as or , was a Danish- Norwegian artist who is considered the first great romantic painter in Norway, the founder of the "golden age" of Norwegian painting, and, by som ...

. ''Nordic Landscape with a Castle on a Hill'' incidentally includes the depiction of two busy

draughtsmen A drafter (also draughtsman / draughtswoman in British and Commonwealth English, draftsman / draftswoman or drafting technician in American and Canadian English) is an engineering technician who makes detailed technical drawings or plans for ...

at the lower right, as a probable reminiscence of Van Everdingen's own Northern journey.

References

External links

''Paysage nordique avec un château sur une colline''
, presentation on the museum's website
Une visite, un thème - Peinture du XVIIème siècle - 5 genres
p. 1. Different presentation on the museum's website. {{Authority control Paintings in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg Dutch Golden Age paintings Landscape paintings 1660s paintings Oil on canvas paintings