(The Hague 1787–1870)
A landscape in the Netherlands, signed A. Schelfhout fecit,
oil on panel, 49 x 68 cm, framed, fissure in the centre, (Rei)

We are grateful to Prof. Jan de Meere who confirmed the authenticity on the basis of a photograph.

Compare:
Willem Laanstra, Andreas Schelfhout (1787–1870), Rokin Art Press B. V., Amsterdam 1995, p. 170, no. Z. 1846–1 as well as p. 176, no. Z. 1853–2 and p. 188, no. ZO 26–2.

In the background, we can see a train passing by; this is probably the so-called ‘Oude Lijn’, the oldest railway line in the Netherlands. Opened in 1839 by the private company Hollandsche Ijzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij, it first ran from Amsterdam to Haarlem before it made its way to Rotterdam, passing Leiden and The Hague. This last segment, between The Hague and Rotterdam, was opened in 1847, the year this work was painted.
Schelfhout seems to have been interested in representing the industrialisation of the Netherlands in his panoramas; the subject of the steam train in the background indeed appears more than once in his oeuvre. One painting, this time dated 1846, with a very similar subject, is exhibited in the Railway Museum in Utrecht.
While the train, symbol of the industrial progress of the 19th century, speeds by in the distance, life quietly goes on in the little hamlet in the foreground. The farmers are harvesting their hay while their cows peacefully graze in the surrounding meadows. We can even see three painters, on the right, working in plein-air, a practice that was dear to Schelfhout, who himself made many preparatory sketches outside while wandering in the country.