The Mill in the Woods
17th century
Medium
Etching; second state
Dimensions
sheet: 6 x 8 1/16 in. (15.2 x 20.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Kenneth Grebinar, 2005
Accession Number
2005.377.33
Tags
Art Historical Context
Anthonie Waterloo’s “The Mill in the Woods” offers a tranquil glimpse of 17th-century Dutch rural life. Created as an etching in the second state, the small print measures just over six by eight inches and depicts a watermill nestled among dense trees and modest houses. Waterloo, active during the Dutch Golden Age, specialized in such landscape subjects that celebrated the quiet harmony between nature and human industry. Etching allowed artists like Waterloo to achieve remarkably fine lines and atmospheric depth, making the medium ideal for rendering foliage, rippling water, and weathered woo...
About the Artist
Anthonie Waterloo · 1609–1690
Anthonie Waterloo (1609–1690) was a prominent Dutch Golden Age landscape artist, born on May 6 in Lille, then part of the Spanish Netherlands. Little is known of his early life beyond his mother, Magdalena Vaillant, who joined Amsterdam's Walloon Church in 1621, with Waterloo following in 1630; no records exist of formal training, and he was likely self-taught. Registered as a painter in Amsterdam...