Snow on the sand dunes

This small, modest study of sand dunes is an unusual work from Van der Velden’s Dutch collection. Stylistically, it is more closely related to his New Zealand paintings. The surface is vigorously worked. The paint is thickly applied and highly gestural. And the work is almost monochromatic, using a limited range of whites and ochre.

Scholar Rodney Wilson suggested that this may have been one of the last paintings that Van der Velden made before leaving for New Zealand. Snow on the sand dunes acts as a point of connection between Van der Velden’s Dutch and New Zealand works - it represents both an end point and a beginning.