Landscape occupies an important place in Dutch painting. Who does not know the work of the Dutch 17th-century landscape painters Salomon van Ruysdael and Jan van Goyen? Their representation of the 'own' Dutch nature was an example for many generations of landscape painters. It is therefore not surprising that the landscape, Dutch or not, is well represented in the Simonis & Buunk collection.
The Romantic landscape painters of the early 19th century chose finely elaborated, idealized summer and winter landscapes, panoramas and forest views. Andreas Schelfhout and B.C. Koekkoek were the undisputed masters in this, who set the tone for many students and followers. Lauwrens Hanedoes, a pupil of B.C. Koekkoek, was one of the first Dutch painters to travel to the forests of Fontainebleau near Paris, where the Barbizon painters worked with capturing moods in nature 'en plein air'. After Hanedoes, other painters moved to Fontainebleau, such as his painter friend Charles Rochussen and Jacob Maris in 1864. J. Weissenbruch, also belonging to the first batch of the Hague School, did not travel there until 1900 as a late homage to the place where these newsmen had worked. In their direct observation of nature, these painters of the Hague School find a response to their own view of nature, which they apply to the Dutch landscape. The aim is to paint nature; humans, animals and nature as a unit. Contemporaries called it "mood images".
The 20th century brought a landscape painting that matched the feelings, ideas and experiments of painters individually. From the 1990s onwards, Piet Mondriaan painted landscapes along the banks of the Gein and around Abcoude in which the influence of Willem Maris can be discerned, but which at the same time show experiments with image structure and space between foreground and background. Pointillism and Expressionism also made their appearance. Painters feel free to choose their subjects and how to implement them. And sometimes there is a connection with strong emotions that evoke a landscape.