Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruysdael
Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruysdael (c. 1628 - March 14, 1682),
the most celebrated of the Dutch landscape oil painting artist, was
born at Haarlem.
The works of Ruysdael may be studied in the Louvre and the National
Gallery, London, and in the collections at the Hague, Amsterdam,
Berlin, and Dresden. His favourite subjects are simple woodland
scenes, similar to those of Everdingen and
Hobbema. He is
especially noted as a painter of trees, and his rendering of
foliage, particularly of oak leaf age, is characterized by the
greatest spirit and precision. His views of distant cities, such as
that of Haarlem in the possession of the marquess of Bute, and that
of Katwijk in the Glasgow Corporation Galleries, clearly indicate
the influence of
Rembrandt.
He frequently painted coast-scenes and sea-pieces, but it is in his
rendering of lonely forest glades that we find him at his best. The
subjects of certain of his mountain scenes seem to be taken from
Norway, and have led to the supposition that he had travelled in
that country. We have, however, no record of such a journey, and
the works in question are probably merely adaptations from the
landscapes of Van Everdingen, whose manner he copied at one period.
Only a single architectural subject from his brush is known--an
admirable interior of the New Church, Amsterdam. The prevailing hue
of his landscapes is a full rich green, which, however, has
darkened with time, while a clear grey tone is characteristic of
his seapieces. The art of Ruysdael, while it shows little of the
scientific knowledge of later landscapists, is sensitive and poetic
in sentiment, and direct and skilful in technique.
Unlike the other great Dutch landscape oin painting artist,
Ruysdael did not aim at a pictorial record of particular scenes,
but he carefully thought out and arranged his compositions,
introducing into them an infinite variety of subtle contrasts in
the formation of the clouds, the plants and tree forms, and the
play of light. He particularly excelled in the painting of
cloudscapes which are spanned dome-like over the landscape, and
determine the light and shade of the objects.
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