Anthonie van Borssom’s “A moonlit river landscape” was greatly influenced by the style of Dutch most well-known landscape painter Aert van der Neer who is famous for his sensitive twilight paintings where light is cast by a small campfire or the moon.

Anthonie van Borssom completed and signed several works of similar composition, most notable of which is held in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Holland. As only five of the artist’s paintings are dated, the scholars have had difficulty in tracing his stylistic development and making generalizations. However, Van Borssom’s moonlit landscapes painted in the manner of Aert van der Neer are considered to be some of his most successful works. These paintings express the nature’s ideal timeless beauty and the inherent connection with it common for the people of those times. The subtle evening light, houses dormant at the water’s edge, boats rocking gently in the summer night’s moonlight, the highly delicate and sensitive colour spectrum rendering the Northern subdued temper. Only truly great masters are able to capture a moment full of genuine emotion and carry it over the centuries. It is only them whose paintings radiate to this day the warmth and diligence that the artists put into their works while seeing themselves as the tools of the highest creative spirit.