Unfinished Landscape

Though unfinished, this landscape depicts a striking contrast between light and dark; the work is simultaneously detailed and minimal. The main component is a long cottage home that extends throughout the horizontal composition. To the right, the cottage is defined by the use of cross-hatched lines that create a sense of texture and depth. However, the left side of the composition remains rather unfinished and lacks shading, with only the bare outlines of the structures depicted. In the distant center of the composition rests a vertical tower and behind it, a large mountain that looms up and mimics the verticality of the tower.

In the seventeenth century in Holland, landscape emerged as a separate category of painting (along with portraiture and genre scenes from everyday life). Some compositions describe actual landscapes with topographical accuracy, while others combine the study of nature and imagination.