This is the type of river landscape in which Schoeff specialised. In its compositional arrangement and diverse elements -tree, windmill, fishing boats- it closely resembles the river landscapes painted by Jan van Goyen (1596-1656) in the 1630s, or those produced by Salomon van Ruysdael (1600/02-1670) from the 1640s onwards.

The composition is neither detailed nor anecdotal, since its aim is to capture a typically damp Dutch atmosphere. The almost monochromatic colouring based on a palette of green, yellow, brown and blue -only broken by the red of some of the fishermen`s shirts- is typical of the seascapes and river scenes produced in Leiden, Haarlem and The Hague between 1630 and 1650. The sunlight filtering through the clouds is mirrored in the water, producing a delicate range of shades and changing reflections. The paint is applied with long, rapid brushstrokes which become shorter and more material in the foliage of the large tree on the left, in the typical manner of this painter whose style, as Bol points out (1973), is reminiscent of that of Salomon van Ruysdael. The extraordinary similarities between this landscape and Ruysdael`s Riverbank with a Village, signed and dated 1645?, suggests Schoeff must have used it as a model. The infrared reflectogram does not reveal changes to the visible image. Only the windmill in the background appears to have been added later. The 1873 catalogue states that A. Bredius read Schoeff`s name in the signature (Posada Kubissa, T.: Pintura holandesa en el Museo Nacional del Prado. Catálogo razonado, 2009, p. 315).