Gorinchem 1604-1677 Amsterdam

Van der Neer’s earliest works are genre scenes and landscapes in the style of Gillis de Hondecoeter and Roelant Savery but, by the mid 1640’s, he had begun to specialize in winter scenes and moonlit river views. Authentic dates on Aert van der Neer paintings start in 1632 and continue until 1662 with increased frequency in the 1640s. But the majority of his paintings is not dated. Until 1641 he signed his works with the full or an abbreviated version of his four-part  name; from 1641 onwards he generally used a monogram. He probably signed al his paintings.  

Van der Neer constructed the majority of his compositions around a central body of water that, as in river landscape at sunset, often stretches the entire width of the foreground, giving the composition depth through its articulation of receding space. The scenes are largely imaginary. In seventeenth century inventories these paintings are referred to as ‘maneschyntje’ or ‘wintertje’

According to Houbraken, the biographer, Aert van der Neer spent his youth in a town near Gorinchem, where he worked for the lords of Arkel. Although nothing is known of his artistic training, it has been suggested he may have become a painter through the influence of the Camphuyzen brothers Rafael and Jochem. Many writers on Van der Neer have suggested he married their sister. Archival research has learned us he married Lysbeth Govaertsdr. in 1629

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