Document: Dutch Landscape with Windmills After Jan Brueghel the Elder, Netherlandish, 17th century

This landscape showing windmills in the Netherlands is helpful in understanding the important role of windmills in New Netherland.  Note the horses and carts departing with sacks of milled flour.  Growing wheat requires that there be a mill to create flour, or the crop is not very useful.  

Windmills like these were considered the height of technology in the 17th Century, and the Dutch built them everywhere they created a settlement.

Metropolitan Museum Summary:

Title: Dutch Landscape with Windmills

Artist: After Jan Brueghel the Elder (Netherlandish, Brussels 1568–1625 Antwerp) (?)

Former Attribution: Formerly attributed to Jan Brueghel the Elder (Netherlandish, Brussels 1568–1625 Antwerp)

Date: 17th century

Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and brown, blue, and gray wash; framing lines in black ink

Dimensions: 7 3/4 x 12 3/16 in. (19.7 x 31 cm)

Classification: Drawings

Credit Line: Fletcher Fund, 1942

Object Number: 42.186.1