Esaias van de Velde played a leading role in the move away from the artificial conventions for rendering landscape that were prevalent in Dutch art in the early sixteenth century, such as densely packed details and dramatic composition. This drawing typifies the naturalistic depiction of the landscape that van de Velde helped introduce in the 1610s. The emergence of realism in Dutch landscape art at this time can be seen as a celebration of the newly emerging United Provinces of the Netherlands—a paean to both the topography and the hard-working people of the land. The horizontal format of van de Velde’s Winter Landscape epitomizes the wide flatness of the Dutch terrain itself. In this unassuming scene, the human and human-made elements (the skaters and buildings) are in perfect equilibrium with the natural ones (the frozen river, trees, birds, and sky).