Jacob van
Ruisdael
(b Haarlem, 1628–9; d Amsterdam, c. 10 March
1682; bur Haarlem, 14 March 1682).
Dutch painter, draughtsman and etcher. He is regarded as the principal
figure among Dutch landscape painters of the second half of the 17th
century. His naturalistic compositions and style of representing massive
forms and his colour range constituted a new direction away from the
‘tonal phase’ (c. 1620–c. 1650) associated with the
previous generation of landscape painters and exemplified by the work of
his uncle Salomon van Ruysdael, Jan van Goyen, Cornelis Vroom, Pieter
Molijn and others. Ruisdael showed unusual versatility: he produced
several distinct landscape types—mountainous, woodland and river
settings, waterfalls, beach and dune scenes, seascapes, panoramas and
winter scenes—and created images that were both innovative and among the
best in their category. He was not apparently interested in the fashion
for Italianate landscapes but stands out as a unique talent in the
context of such notable contemporaries as Aelbert Cuyp and Philips
Koninck. His oeuvre comprises c. 700 paintings and c. 100
drawings, the majority undated.