Imaginary Wooded Landscape

An idyllic landscape is populated by numerous figures, walking, taking a rest or doing things on the water. The main role, however, is taken by the fairytale tree in the foreground. Gnarled and covered in moss and ivy, it dominates the landscape, showing us the grandeur of nature.

Van Geel painted around thirty of this sort of fantasy landscape. This is remarkable, as his colleagues were concentrating more and more on naturalistic representations of the flat Dutch landscape.