Adam von Breen, c. 1590 - c. 1645, Zug.

Adam von Breen,
ca. 1590 - ca. 1645, attributed

ELEGANT PARTY ENJOYING ICE AMUSEMENTS

Oil on panel. Parquetted.
56.5 x 104 cm.

In a wide, almost panoramic format, the painter depicts the events on a wide frozen canal in deliberately cheerful social scenes. Countless groups and couples have gathered to go ice skating or are darting across the ice. On the right, one group is being pulled onto the ice in a horse-drawn sleigh, while on the left, others have taken their place under the sail of a frozen icebreaker - a new invention at the time. Such winter scenes became a particularly popular subject in Dutch painting due to the so-called Little Ice Age, which began in the Middle Ages and reached its peak in the 16th century.

Little is known about the artist’s life and work. For his wedding, he is documented as a “young man from Amsterdam” in 1511. In 1612 he was admitted to the Guild of Saint Luke in The Hague, of which he was a member until 1621. It is assumed that he was a student of the landscape painter David Vinckboons (1576 - 1629). To avoid bankruptcy, he moved to Amsterdam in 1622, where he is again documented in 1528. In 1624 he went to Norway. In Oslo he created decorations in the palace of Christopher Urne, Lord of Akershus, who was responsible for buildings for King Christian IV.

Notes:
An identical depiction with the same dimensions is held at the National Museum in Warsaw, attributed to David Vinckboons (1576 - 1629). The connection between both paintings has not yet been clarified.

Literature:
cf. Edwin Buijsen, Haagse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw: Het Hoogsteder lexicon van alle schilders werkzaam in Den Haag 1600 -1700, Zwolle 1998.