Jan van Goyen

Happy Birthday Jan van Goyen (as well as my good friend Mary Jane Cline)! Dutch painter, born in 1596, van Goyen continued the trend of landscape painting of familiar places, which began in Holland. He worked on thin sheets of oak painted with several layers of thin animal hide glue. Into this he scraped white lead to use as a ground, tinting it with yellow ochre or a warmer tone. The image was sketched in pen and walnut ink before painting. River Scene feels so realistic to us with the distant town, the wet air, elements of a boatyard, the viewer immediately relaxes into the mood van Goyen has created.