Washerwomen at the foot of the Torre delle Milizie
Wijk began his career as an Italianate landscape painter, but also painted genre and marines. He spent some time in London, where he produced a series of pictures depicting the Great Fire of 1666, indulging a fascination with the effects of shadows. This picture is typical of un-idealised Dutch Italianate townscape. There is little regard for compositional conventions. Instead, the tower dominates. It can be identified with the Torre delle Milizie, a building of Roman origin near Rome. The washerwomen in the foreground add anecdotal detail to this bold and daring composition.
