As pointed out by E.J. Sluijter (Hendrik Willem Schweickhardt (1746-1797), Oud Holland, LXXXIX, 1975, p. 166) Schweickhardt can be credited with reviving the winter landscape at the end of the 18th century, thus stimulating the flowering of this genre in the mid-19th century by Romantic artists like Andreas Schelfhout and Charles Leickert. Schweickhardt is still strongly influenced by 17th century masters, especially by Isaack van Ostade; in the present lot this influence is evident in the men pulling the sledge

See colour illustration