A moonlit wooded landscape with a horseman and other figures by a canal, a town beyond

This beautifully preserved canvas is an excellent example of Aert van der Neer's distinctive mode of rendering moonlit landscapes. He began to specialise in painting nocturnes in the 1640s, demonstrating his mastery of light effects and his singular technique, often, as in this case, using the reverse end of the brush to create highlights or to define silhouetted shapes by scratching through wet paint to the ground.

We are grateful to Dr. Wolfgang Schultz, for confirming the attribution upon inspection of the original.