A vast watery view dotted with numerous mills – at first sight this is a typical Dutch landscape. The purplish mountains on the horizon, however, sooner recall Italy. To convey the wide panorama, Philips Koninck – a pupil of Rembrandt – adopted a high vantage point. In the foreground he placed some majestic trees rendered in a brownish-green impasto. Farther back, a meandering river leads the eye into the distance dominated by cooler colours.