In
the first decades of the seventeenth century, the emerging genre of landscape
became a locus of artistic innovation. Esaias van de Velde was a gifted draftsman
and an early practitioner of nature study, using his drawings to develop a highly
naturalistic approach to both local topography and more fantastical vistas. This
view of a path through steep hills imagines a terrain entirely unlike the flat
Dutch countryside that Van de Velde observed and sketched, yet the tonalities
of light and the particularities of the rocks and trees give the scene the
appearance of an actual place.