Ice pleasure on the Scheldt in Antwerp from 1622 is clearly not one of Sebastiaen Vrancx’s famous battle canvasses, but it does contain some of the same compositional traits.
Sebastiaen Vrancx is best known for having been one of – if not the first of the Dutch painters to depict battle scenes. As a young man, he served in the Antwerp civil militia, and his experience may have informed, or at least inspired his interest in these scenes.
The vast canvas, depicting a winter’s day in the town center, has many different points of focus, but the overarching interest is the atmospheric influence on the city’s buildings and inhabitants.
Sebastiaen Vrancx’s Ice pleasure on the Scheldt in Antwerp can be found in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.