Jacob van Ruisdael

Recorded upon this small panel by the Dutch artist Jacob van Ruisdael is a panoramic view of a lush landscape beneath large, billowing clouds. Flanking a calm body of water in the foreground are ruins set before a rolling plain of grain fields with a village church and a windmill in the middle ground. Although this particular view has been described in the past as one of Haarlem or one of Beverwijk, a village just north of Haarlem, it is more likely that this is an idealized view.  

Jacob van Ruisdael returned to this particular expanse on several occasions, in each version exploring the varying effects of weather and light. His largest variant, and perhaps the most recognizable of the group, is his canvas of circa 1665-1670 in the National Gallery, London.¹ The other versions are all smaller in scale. For example, a canvas also in the National Gallery shows a similar view beneath a more dramatic sky with one bright patch of sunlight.² Other versions include one in the Dutuit Collection,³ one that appeared with Knoedler Gallery in 1926,⁴ and one in a New York private collection, the latter of which comes closest to the present lot in size and composition.⁵  

1. Inv. no. NG990, oil on canvas, 109 by 146 cm, signed on the water lower right. See S. Slive, Jacob van Ruisdael: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, Drawings, and Etchings, New Haven and London 2001, pp. 71-74, cat. no. 44, reproduced..  

2. Inv. no. NG2561, oil on canvas, 34 by 40 cm, indistinct traces of a signature, lower left center. Slive 2001, p. 74, cat. no. 45, reproduced. 

3. Oil on canvas, 41 by 46 cm, signed lower right. Slive 2001, p. 86, cat. no. 61, reproduced.

4. 53.4 by 61 cm. Slive 2001, pp. 72-73, under cat. no. 44, note 3.  

5. Oil on canvas, 29.5 by 44.5 cm, unsigned. Slive 2001, p. 82, cat. no. 56, reproduced.