Watchtowers in an Estuary

Goyen was one of the most productive 17th-century Dutch landscape painters - at present he is attributed with twelve hundred paintings and about eight hundred drawings. Despite that, painting itself did not bring him much money, so he also made his living by evaluating artworks, art trading and investments in the tulip bulbs market. This painting dates into the painter´s period when he preferred subdued coloration, often in a few tones only. The horizon is placed low - and attention is thus focused on the captured atmospheric phenomena - the accumulated clouds, through which the sun shines, reflected on the water surface. Fishermen´s boats and small figures are done in quick, yet precise brushstrokes. Later on, Goyen´s treatment of landscape views was a source of inspiration for the French Impressionists, who appreciated not only his loose brushwork, but also his ability to capture a landscape atmosphere with verisimilitude.