National Gallery of Art

This evocative landscape, in which Aert van der Neer has captured the subtle atmospheric effects of the Dutch landscape illuminated by the glow of a moonlit sky, is one of the master’s most compelling night scenes. The light of the full moon, somewhat diffused by the varied cloud formations that enliven the sky, is nevertheless intense enough to create strong reflections in the water of the slowly moving river that skirts the city and on the windows of buildings lining the shore. This light brings the gnarled tree trunks at the left to life and accents the uppermost leaves on the graceful trees that arch over the water. It reveals paths and bridges, picks out the family returning home over the stone bridge with their dog, and highlights the elegant couple standing in the shadows of the trees at the right.

In conceiving this image, Van der Neer was more interested in creating the mood of nature than in recording an actual setting. The large houses to the left are similar to those found in Amsterdam where the artist lived most of his life, but the church adjacent to the dwellings beyond recall those found in smaller cities and towns. The building complex in the background on the opposite shore of the river appears to be the ruins of an ancient small castle or country house surrounded by a high wall of a type traditionally situated in more rural settings.[1]  [1]
The edifice does not conform to any recognizable structure. Peter Sutton relates a similar structure in Moonlit View on a River, 1647, to the manor house Kostverloren, which stood along the river Amstel not far from Amsterdam (Peter C. Sutton et al., Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Landscape Painting [Boston, 1987], 381–383, no. 59). It is indeed possible that Kostverloren provided the inspiration for such castle-like forms in the background of some of Van der Neer’s paintings from the late 1640s (see also Moonlit Landscape with Castle, 1646, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, inv. no. 3561-8-55), but if so, he has transformed its appearance so much as to make it unrecognizable. Likewise, the elegant couple on the right stands before a stone gate similar to those that served as entrances to country houses, particularly those situated along the river Vecht. The setting, thus, is a composite of various aspects of city and country life that Van der Neer has brought into a harmonious whole.

Although few of Van der Neer’s paintings are dated, broad patterns within his stylistic development suggest that he executed this work near the end of the 1640s. It stands at the culmination of a period when his nocturnal scenes depicted the reflections of a full moon in the quiet waterways of the Dutch countryside.[2]  [2]
This dating has been proposed by Fredo Bachmann, Aert van der Neer (Bremen, 1982), 68–73. This painting exhibits a number of remarkable techniques that Van der Neer developed to convey his atmospheric effects. He suggested the translucency of the clouds, for example, by allowing the reddish ocher ImprimaturaImprimatura
 A colored priming layer used to establish the tonality of the painting. covering the walnut panel to remain visible through thinly applied bluish gray paint. In the foreground, he articulated a number of objects with light contours, sometimes highlighted with paint applied with a brush and sometimes by scratching the wet paint with an instrument to reveal the GroundGround
 The layer or layers used to prepare the support to hold the paint. layer.[3]  [3]
For a discussion of Van der Neer’s painting techniques from this period see Manja Zeldenrust, “Aert van der Neer’s Rivierlandschap bij maanlicht opgehelderd,” Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 31 (1983): 99–104.

Interest in moonlit landscapes in the Netherlands can be traced to engravings made by Hendrik Goudt (Dutch, 1585 - 1648) after paintings by Adam Elsheimer (German, 1578 - 1610) in the second decade of the seventeenth century. One of the few Dutch painters to venture into this new domain was Rafael Govertsz Camphuysen (1597/1598–1657), with whom Van der Neer may well have studied in Gorinchem during the 1620s.[4]  [4]
For an illustration of one of Camphuysen’s nocturnal scenes, which probably dates from the mid-1640s (Gemäldegalerie, Dresden, no. 1546), see Walther Bernt, Die niederländischen Maler des 17. Jahrhunderts. 800 Künstler mit 1470 Abbildungen, 3rd ed. (Munich, 1969), repro. 222. That Camphuysen’s early influence encouraged Van der Neer to develop this genre of painting after he moved to Amsterdam in the early 1630s seems unlikely, but virtually nothing is known of Van der Neer’s artistic contacts during the 1630s and 1640s except that Camphuysen was a witness at the baptism of his daughter in Amsterdam in 1642.[5]  [5]
For the relationship of Rafael and his brother Govert Dircksz Camphuysen (1623–1672) to the early work of Van der Neer, see Fredo Bachmann, “Die Brüder Rafel und Jochem Camphuysen und ihr Verhältnis zu Aert van der Neer,” Oud-Holland 85 (1970): 243–250, and also Fredo Bachmann, “Die Herkunft der Frühwerke des Aert van der Neer,” Oud-Holland 89 (1975): 213–222. The earliest known dated landscape by Van der Neer is 1635, executed after he had moved to Amsterdam. Nevertheless, because Van der Neer’s scenes appear to be based on excursions he made in and around Amsterdam, it seems that he developed his style rather independently. Only Sir Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577 - 1640) explored the transformation of a landscape through light as profoundly as did Van der Neer. If Van der Neer was in fact familiar with Rubens’ landscapes from the 1630s, either firsthand or through the prints of engravers such as Schelte Adams Bolswert (Flemish, 1586 - 1659), he succeeded in adapting the Flemish master’s atmospheric effects to a Dutch landscape setting.

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr.

April 24, 2014