He later returned to his birth city, where the artist Pieter Isaacsz took him under his wing. Avercamp was most fond of painting winter scenes and was the first artist from the Northern Netherlands to specialize in this genre. His landscapes show frozen rivers dotted with ice skaters enjoying themselves and even playing mischievous pranks here and there. Avercamp’s work offers us a vivid, almost audible impression of people having fun on the ice in the 17th century. Given that the artist was deaf, he probably never heard the cheerful shrieks or scraping of skates on the ice himself.
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