View of Rhenen

The distinct topographical features of Rhenen, a city near Utrecht perched on the lower banks of the Rhine River, attracted numerous Dutch artists in the 17th and 18th centuries. This masterful landscape of the city and its surrounding areas is one of several versions of the subject by Jan van Goyen, a pupil of Esaias van de Velde and one of the most important landscape artists in 17th-century Netherlands. Using a limited palette of green, yellow, brown, and gray, Van Goyen depicts the city’s Gothic church of Saint Cunera, medieval fortified walls and twin towers, windmills, and a ferry filled with passengers. His use of bold brushstrokes to suggest a swiftly moving formation of rain clouds is counterbalanced by his meticulous, graphic treatment of the buildings and the lush terrain that includes travelers, fishermen, horses, and birds.