This painting is characteristic of the ‘Tonal School’ of Dutch landscape. An economic way of painting, popular during the 1630s and 1640s, it enabled the artist to convey an often complex scene with minimal means – earth colours, rapid touch and paint so thin that the ground shows through. Recent conservation has removed an over-painted bush on the lower right to reveal a man squatting. Acquired by George IV in 1810 Cat. 17