American Art Collaborative

The Three Trees, depicting an area on the outskirts of Amsterdam, is perhaps Rembrandt’s most famous landscape. Formally the print is structured on the interplay of distance and scale and light and darkness. A storm sweeps across the Dutch countryside toward three sturdy trees on the hillside. Rembrandt combines sharp, straight lines with delicate wispy ones to evoke the strength and movement of the weather. Pictured beneath the dramatic sky are lively scenes of everyday life: a picnic in the left foreground, amorous lovers hiding in the bushes, and a horse-drawn cart ascending the hillside toward an artist, perhaps Rembrandt himself, perched at the top. The print’s emphasis on flux and contrast enhances a moral message about life’s transience that Rembrandt’s contemporaries would have recognized.