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Baroque and Rococo
Jacob van Ruisdael
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.
Waterfall with Castle Built on the Rock
c. 1665
Oil on canvas, 100 x 86 cm
Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig
Waterfall in a Rocky Landscape
1660s
Oil on canvas, 98,5 x 85 cm
National Gallery, London
