Adrianus Marijnissen (1899-1978) - Hollands Wintertafereel (No Reserve)

Artist: Adrianus Marijnissen (1899-1978)
Title: Hollands WIntertafereel
Medium and support: oil on panel
Dimensions: 26 × 46 cm; with frame 48 × 68 cm
Signature: signed lower right
Provenance: Dutch art collection

Artist

Adrianus Marijnissen was born in Hooge en Lage Zwaluwe and developed as a self-taught artist. He lived and worked in various places, including Lage Zwaluwe, Puttershoek, Vaals and Breda. His subjects include river views, summer and winter landscapes, stable interiors, and still lifes. His painting is considered Romantic Realism. This aligns his work with the continuation of 19th-century figurative landscape traditions in the 20th century, in which recognizable motifs and atmospheric handling of light maintained a central role.

Object description

The painting shows a frozen stretch of water between snow-covered banks with rural buildings and bare trees. On the left, several figures stand near a horse and a sleigh. Across the middle of the ice, skaters spread out; on the right, a figure stands beside a loaded sleigh next to a wooden building. On the horizon, low buildings, a tower, and a windmill are visible.

An expansive sky with light-blue areas and gray, pink, and ochre-colored clouds covers most of the scene. The ice contains dark reflections and long light lines. The signature is located lower right, in a dark area of the ice.

Technique and material analysis

The work is painted in oil on panel. In the sky, soft color transitions mingle with individually recognizable brushstrokes. Buildings, tree branches, and figures are built up from short strokes and linear accents. Light brushstrokes mark snow edges, roof surfaces, and local reflections. In the ice, predominantly horizontal strokes are interrupted by vertical reflections of the figures and the horse.

Composition and formal analysis

The low horizon gives the sky a dominant position. The buildings on both sides frame the scene and leave the middle open. The larger figures, the horse, and the dark ice strip on the left foreground provide a counterweight to the wooden building on the right. Toward the horizon, the dimensions and contrasts of motifs diminish, enhancing the sense of spatial distance.

Slanted body postures of the skaters and light lines in the ice break the horizontal structure. The warm brown and reddish tones of buildings and clothing contrast with the blue-gray ice. Related warm tones in the clouds connect the lower strip with the sky.

Stylistic and art-historical context

The Dutch winter landscape developed in the 17th century into an independent genre. Depictions of skaters, sleighs, and other activities on frozen water linked the landscape to the portrayal of everyday life. In 19th-century Romantic painting, including works by Andreas Schelfhout, this subject again acquired an important role. The combination of ice entertainment, rural buildings, bare trees, and an expansive cloudscape connects Hollands WIntertafereel to this pictorial tradition.

The Hague School, from around 1860, emphasized the Dutch landscape, atmospheric coherence, and the interaction of light, air, and water. The stylistic kinship here mainly lies in the broad sky and attention to reflections. The separately worked-out groups of figures and the alternation of warm and cool colors also fit the Romantic-Realist winter scene. Thus the work unites atmospheric landscape treatment with the narrative motifs of the traditional ice scene.

Comparable artists

Andreas Schelfhout, Louis Apol, Adolf Stademann, Peder Mørk Mønsted

Condition

The paint layer shows craquelure and small, point-shaped flaking. The painting has recently been cleaned and revarnished. It is housed in a bronze-gold colored frame with plaster ornaments.

Conclusion

Hollands WIntertafereel by Adrianus Marijnissen aligns with the Romantic-Realist continuation of the Dutch winter landscape, with atmospheric kinship to the Hague School. The condition is characterized by craquelure and small losses of paint; cleaning and renewal of the varnish layer have been recently carried out.

The work Hollands WIntertafereel sits in an antique gold-colored wooden frame with plaster ornaments

Total dimensions: 48x68 cm
Medium dimensions: 26x46 cm

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