Lot Essay
Salomon van Ruysdael first explored the theme of river landscapes as early as 1631, thus following on the heels of Jan Brueghel I, Jan van de Velde, Esaias van de Velde and Jan van Goyen. By the 1640s and 1650s this subject matter had become a central theme in Ruysdael's art, and at the same time he explored new expressive possibilities within a limited group of motifs and compositional elements. While his river landscape of 1631, now in the National Gallery, London (Inv. no. 1439), employs a low horizon, a diagonally retreating body of water beside a wedge shaped bank covered with trees, similar to the present painting, the mid-1640s are marked by a less monochromatic and more assured style. In the present painting the grey-green palette is supplemented with accents of yellow and a bold sky-blue, and his brushwork becomes more animated, enlivening foliage with a more impressionistic feel. Overhead, the clouds reiterate the forms of the speckled trees on the riverbank.
The years 1644-5 were amongst Ruysdael's most productive, with at least a dozen paintings bearing the date 1645. A number of similarly conceived river scenes from this period may be compared to the present painting; for example the painting of 1644 in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland (Inv. no. 73.2; Stechow, op. cit., p. 138, no. 452A); a river landscape in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. George Kaufman (ibid., p. 149, no. 517, and in the catalogue of the exhibition, Masters of 17th-Century Dutch Landscape Painting, Amsterdam, The Rijksmuseum, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts and Philadelphia, Museum of Art, 1987-8, pp. 471-2, no. 93, pl. 47 and illustrated on the cover of the catalogue); the painting with Hoogsteder and Hoogsteder, The Hague (Stechow, op. cit., no. 513 and in the catalogue of the exhibition, The Golden Age of Dutch Landscape Painting, Madrid, Fundacin Collecin Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1994, pp. 216-7, no. 61); and river landscapes of 1644 sold at Christie's, London, July 11, 1980, lot 111 (240,000=$547,200), and Sotheby's, London, Dec. 3, 1997, lot 11 (2,100,000=$3,528,000).
The years 1644-5 were amongst Ruysdael's most productive, with at least a dozen paintings bearing the date 1645. A number of similarly conceived river scenes from this period may be compared to the present painting; for example the painting of 1644 in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland (Inv. no. 73.2; Stechow, op. cit., p. 138, no. 452A); a river landscape in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. George Kaufman (ibid., p. 149, no. 517, and in the catalogue of the exhibition, Masters of 17th-Century Dutch Landscape Painting, Amsterdam, The Rijksmuseum, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts and Philadelphia, Museum of Art, 1987-8, pp. 471-2, no. 93, pl. 47 and illustrated on the cover of the catalogue); the painting with Hoogsteder and Hoogsteder, The Hague (Stechow, op. cit., no. 513 and in the catalogue of the exhibition, The Golden Age of Dutch Landscape Painting, Madrid, Fundacin Collecin Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1994, pp. 216-7, no. 61); and river landscapes of 1644 sold at Christie's, London, July 11, 1980, lot 111 (240,000=$547,200), and Sotheby's, London, Dec. 3, 1997, lot 11 (2,100,000=$3,528,000).