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Lot Essay
Salomon van Ruysdael was a leading exponent of the tonal phase of Dutch landscape painting, an expressive interpretation of the region spearheaded by Pieter Molyn and Jan van Goyen in the 1630s. Salomon's landscapes would briefly take on a more classicizing feel in the following decade, possibly in response to the technique of his successful nephew, Jacob van Ruisdael. However, by the 1650s he would return to his more atmospheric, tonal idiom, of which the present composition is an example. Salomon's most popular subject was the rivers and countryside surrounding Haarlem, his permanent home following the death of his father near Amsterdam. In 1623 he joined Haarlem's Guild of St Luke, serving as its deacon and as an officer on two occasions. Despite his restrained palette and limited subject-matter, Salomon successfully animated his winter scenes through sharp compositional diagonals and lively figures engaged in local pastimes.
The present painting depicts one of several popular seventeenth-century sports involving a man on horseback, with a companion riding sidesaddle behind him, trying to catch objects from a line. In Drawing the Eel a couple on horseback try to yank a slippery eel suspended across a road from an angled pole and a village inn. Another example of Salomon treating this subject can be seen in a signed and dated painting of the 1650s, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Inv. no. 71.75). Similar games include 'Riding at the Herring' and 'Riding at the Cat'. For a more detailed account of sporting games in seventeenth century Holland, see P.C. Sutton in catalogue of the exhibition, Masters of 17th-Century Dutch Landscape Painting, 1987, pp. 529-31.
The present painting depicts one of several popular seventeenth-century sports involving a man on horseback, with a companion riding sidesaddle behind him, trying to catch objects from a line. In Drawing the Eel a couple on horseback try to yank a slippery eel suspended across a road from an angled pole and a village inn. Another example of Salomon treating this subject can be seen in a signed and dated painting of the 1650s, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Inv. no. 71.75). Similar games include 'Riding at the Herring' and 'Riding at the Cat'. For a more detailed account of sporting games in seventeenth century Holland, see P.C. Sutton in catalogue of the exhibition, Masters of 17th-Century Dutch Landscape Painting, 1987, pp. 529-31.