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Aert van der Neer may have started painting late in his life, but he was a highly prolific Dutch artist. Hardly anything is known about his apprenticeship years in Amsterdam. His evening pieces are reminiscent of paintings by Rafael Govertsz. Camphuysen. The motifs and treatment of his landscapes are also notably close to the style of Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp. It is possible that van der Neer learned from these artists and was thus inspired to his atmospheric evening landscapes and moonscapes, seascapes, village views, nocturnal conflagrations and winter paintings.
He devoted himself with care to his nocturnes, which required special lighting situations and to which he gave a peculiar tint, atmospheric fragrance and flickering sheen. Most often, a river or Dutch canal stands out from the darkness. Rays and reflections of the moonlight fall onto towns, figures and boats along the banks and canals of Holland. In his paintings, the artist varies between meticulous rendering and almost sketchy ephemerality as well as broad brushwork. Further examples of his careful observation of light conditions in the moonshine would be paintings such as "Nocturnal River landscape in the moonlight with Kostverloren Castle in the background" (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, inv. no. 2000.27) or "River landscape by moonlight" (Gemäldegalerie Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, No. 842C).