This painting which entered the Hermitage in the 18th century is the finest work by the artist in the museum collection. Droochsloot created a typical image of a wintertime Dutch town, perhaps his own native Utrecht. The frozen canal between the town walls is crowded with people: there are burghers out to take the air, anglers who are making holes in the ice and children dashing around on skates. On the banks of the canal we can see urban buildings - towers, gates with drawbridges, windmills and dwelling houses. The artist's attention is spread between the depiction of a variety of motifs - everything seems fascinating to him. The result might be described as pictures within a picture, where every little scene has a significance and finished character of its own. Droochsloot paints the landscape and the figures with equal attention. The picturesque disorderliness of the crowd and the untidy lines of the landscape are harmonized by a restrained colour scheme, the dingy sunlight and the strict use of perspective in the construction of space.