text: jacob van ruisdael jacob isaackszoon van ruisdael ( dutch pronunciation : [ ˈjaːkɔp fɑn ] ; c . 1629 – 10 march 1682 ) was a dutch painter , draughtsman , and etcher . he is generally considered the pre - eminent landscape painter of the dutch golden age , a period of great wealth and cultural achievement when dutch painting became highly popular . prolific and versatile , ruisdael depicted a wide variety of landscape subjects . from 1646 he painted dutch countryside scenes of remarkable quality for a young man . after a trip to germany in 1650 , his landscapes took on a more heroic character . in his late work , conducted when he lived and worked in amsterdam , he added city panoramas and seascapes to his regular repertoire . in these , the sky often took up two - thirds of the canvas . in total he produced more than 150 scandinavian views featuring waterfalls . ruisdael 's only registered pupil was meindert hobbema , one of several artists who painted figures in his landscapes . hobbema 's work has at times been confused with ruisdael 's . there is difficulty in attributing ruisdael 's work , which has not been helped by the fact that three members of his family were also landscape painters , some of whom spelled their name " ruysdael " : his father isaack van ruisdael , his well - known uncle salomon van ruysdael , and his cousin , confusingly called jacob van ruysdael . ruisdael 's work was in demand in the dutch republic during his lifetime . today it is spread across private and institutional collections around the world ; the national gallery in london , the rijksmuseum in amsterdam , and the hermitage museum in st. petersburg hold the largest collections . ruisdael shaped landscape painting traditions worldwide , from the english romantics to the barbizon school in france , and the hudson river school in the us , and influenced generations of dutch landscape artists . life jacob isaackszoon van ruisdael was born in haarlem in 1628 or 1629 into a family of painters , all landscapists . the number of painters in the family , and the multiple spellings of the ruisdael name , have hampered attempts to document his life and attribute his works . the name ruisdael is connected to a castle , now lost , in the village of blaricum . the village was the home of jacob 's grandfather , the furniture maker jacob de goyer . when de goyer moved away to naarden , three of his sons changed their name to ruysdael or ruisdael , probably to indicate their origin . two of de goyer 's sons became painters : jacob 's father isaack van ruisdael and his well - known uncle salomon van ruysdael . jacob himself always spelled his name with an " i " , while his cousin , salomon 's son jacob salomonszoon van ruysdael , also a landscape artist , spelled his name with a " y " . jacob 's earliest biographer , arnold houbraken , called him jakob , and claimed the name resulted from his specialty in waterfalls , namely the " " ( rustling noise of water ) falling into a " " ( dale ) where it foams out into a pond or wider river . it is not known whether ruisdael 's mother was isaack van ruisdael 's first wife , whose name is unknown , or his second wife , maycken . isaack and maycken married on 12 november 1628 . ruisdael 's teacher is also unknown . it is often assumed ruisdael studied with his father and uncle , but there is no archival evidence for this . he appears to have been strongly influenced by other contemporary local haarlem landscapists , most notably cornelis vroom and allaert van everdingen . the earliest date that appears on ruisdael 's paintings and etchings is 1646 . two years after this date he was admitted to membership of the haarlem guild of st. luke . by this time landscape paintings were as popular as history paintings in dutch households , though at the time of ruisdael 's birth , history paintings appeared far more frequently . this growth in popularity of landscapes continued throughout ruisdael 's career . around 1657 , ruisdael moved to amsterdam , by then a prosperous city which was likely to have offered a bigger market for his work . his fellow haarlem painter allaert van everdingen had already moved to amsterdam and found a market there . ruisdael lived and worked in amsterdam for the rest of his life . in 1668 , his name appears as a witness to the marriage of meindert hobbema , his only registered pupil , a painter whose works have been confused with ruisdael 's own . for a landscape artist , it seems ruisdael travelled relatively little : to blaricum , egmond aan zee , and rhenen in the 1640s , with nicolaes berchem to bentheim and just across the border in germany in 1650 , and possibly with hobbema across the german border again in 1661 , via the veluwe , deventer and . despite ruisdael 's numerous norwegian landscapes , there is no record of him having travelled to scandinavia . there is some speculation that ruisdael was also a doctor . in 1718 , his biographer houbraken reports that he studied medicine and performed surgery in amsterdam . archival records of the 17th century show the name " jacobus " on a list of amsterdam doctors , albeit crossed out , with the added remark that he earned his medical degree on 15 october 1676 in caen , northern france . various art historians have speculated that this was a case of mistaken identity . pieter suggests it was ruisdael 's cousin who appeared on the record . the ruisdael expert seymour slive argues that the spelling " " is not consistent with ruisdael 's own spelling of his name , that his unusually high production suggests there was little time to study medicine , and that there is no indication in any of his art that he visited northern france . however , slive is willing to accept that ruisdael may still have been a doctor . in 2013 , jan paul hinrichs agreed that the evidence is inconclusive . ruisdael was not jewish . slive reports that , because of ruisdael 's depiction of a jewish cemetery and various biblical names in the ruisdael family , he often heard speculation that ruisdael must surely be jewish . the evidence shows otherwise . ruisdael requested that he be baptised at the calvinist reformed church in amsterdam , and he was buried in the saint bavo 's church , haarlem , a protestant church at that time . his uncle salomon van ruysdael belonged to the young flemish subgroup of the mennonite congregation , one of several types of anabaptists in haarlem , and it is probable that ruisdael 's father was also a member there . his cousin jacob was a registered mennonite in amsterdam . ruisdael did not marry . according to houbraken this was " to reserve time to serve his old father " . it is not known what ruisdael looked like , as no known portrait or self - portrait of him exists . the art historian hendrik frederik wijnman disproved the myth that ruisdael died a poor man , supposedly in the old men 's almshouse in haarlem . wijnman showed that the person who died there was in fact ruisdael 's cousin , jacob salomonszoon . although there is no record of ruisdael owning land or shares , he appears to have lived comfortably , even after the economic downturn of the disaster year 1672 . his paintings were valued fairly highly . in a large sample of inventories between 1650 and 1679 the average price for a ruisdael was 40 guilders , compared to an average of 19 guilders for all attributed paintings . in a ranking of contemporary dutch painters based on price - weighted frequency in these inventories , ruisdael ranks seventh ; rembrandt ranks first . ruisdael died in amsterdam on 10 march 1682 . he was buried 14 march 1682 in saint bavo 's church , haarlem . work early years ruisdael 's work from c . 1646 to the early 1650s , when he was living in haarlem , is characterised by simple motifs and careful and laborious study of nature : dunes , woods , and atmospheric effects . by applying heavier paint than his predecessors , ruisdael gave his foliage a rich quality , conveying a sense of sap flowing through branches and leaves . his accurate rendering of trees was unprecedented at the time : the genera of his trees are the first to be unequivocally recognisable by modern - day botanists . his early sketches introduce motifs that would return in all his work : a sense of spaciousness and luminosity , and an airy atmosphere achieved through pointillist - like touches of chalk . most of his thirty black chalk sketches that survive date from this period . an exemplar of ruisdael 's early style is dune landscape , one of the earliest works , dated 1646 . it breaks with the classic dutch tradition of depicting broad views of dunes that include houses and trees flanked by distant vistas . instead , ruisdael places tree - covered dunes prominently at centre stage , with a concentrating strong light on a sandy path . the resulting heroic effect is enhanced by the large size of the canvas , " so unexpected in the work of an inexperienced painter " according to irina sokolova , curator at the hermitage museum . the art historian hofstede de groot said of dune landscape : " it is hardly credible that it should be the work of a boy of seventeen " . ruisdael 's first panoramic landscape , view of naarden with the church at in the distance , dates from 1647 . the theme of an overwhelming sky and a distant town , in this case the birthplace of his father , is one he returned to in his later years . for unknown reasons , ruisdael almost entirely stopped dating his work from 1653 . only five works from the 1660s have a , partially obscured , year next to his signature ; none from the 1670s and 1680s have a date . dating subsequent work has therefore been largely based on detective work and speculation . all thirteen known ruisdael etchings come from his early period , with the first one dated 1646 . it is unknown who taught him the art of etching . no etchings exist signed by his father , his uncle , or his fellow haarlem landscapist cornelis vroom , who influenced his other work . his etchings show little influence from rembrandt , either in style or technique . few original impressions exist ; five etchings survive in only a single impression . the rarity of prints suggests that ruisdael considered them trial essays , which did not warrant large editions . the etching expert georges duplessis singled out at the edge of a wood and the travellers as unrivalled illustrations of ruisdael 's genius . middle period following ruisdael 's trip to germany , his landscapes took on a more heroic character , with forms becoming larger and more prominent . a view of bentheim castle , dated 1653 , is just one of a dozen of ruisdael 's depictions of a particular castle in germany , almost all of which pronounce its position on a hilltop . significantly , ruisdael made numerous changes to the castle 's setting ( it is actually on an unimposing low hill ) culminating in a 1653 version which shows it on a wooded mountain . these variations are considered by art historians to be evidence of ruisdael 's compositional skills . on his trip to germany , ruisdael encountered water mills which he turned into a principal subject for painting , the first artist to ever do so . two water mills with an open sluice , dated 1653 , is a prime example . the ruins of egmont castle near alkmaar were another favourite subject of ruisdael 's and feature in the jewish cemetery , of which he painted two versions . with these , ruisdael pits the natural world against the built environment , which has been overrun by the trees and shrubs surrounding the cemetery . ruisdael 's first scandinavian views contain big firs , rugged mountains , large boulders and rushing torrents . though convincingly realistic , they are based on previous art works , rather than on direct experience . there is no record that ruisdael made any trip to scandinavia , although fellow haarlem painter van everdingen had travelled there in 1644 and had popularised the subgenre . ruisdael 's work soon outstripped van everdingen 's finest efforts . in total ruisdael produced more than 150 scandinavian views featuring waterfalls , of which waterfall in a mountainous landscape with a ruined castle , c . 1665 – 1670 , is seen as his greatest by slive . in this period ruisdael started painting coastal scenes and sea - pieces , influenced by simon de and jan porcellis . among the most dramatic is rough sea at a jetty , with a restricted palette of only black , white , blue and a few brown earth colours . however , forest scenes remain a subject of choice , such as the hermitage 's most famous ruisdael , a wooded marsh , dated c . 1665 , which depicts a primeval scene with broken birches and oaks , and branches reaching for the sky amidst an overgrown pond . later years during ruisdael 's last period he began to depict mountain scenes , such as mountainous and wooded landscape with a river , dateable to the late 1670s . this portrays a rugged range with the highest peak in the clouds . ruisdael 's subjects became unusually varied . the art historian wolfgang identified thirteen themes within the dutch golden age landscape genre , and ruisdael 's work encompasses all but two of them , excelling at most : forests , rivers , dunes and country roads , panoramas , imaginary landscapes , scandinavian waterfalls , marines , , winter scenes , town views , and nocturnes . only the italianate and foreign landscapes other than scandinavian are absent from his oeuvre . slive finds it appropriate that a windmill is the subject of one of ruisdael 's most famous works . windmill at wijk bij duurstede , dated 1670 , shows wijk bij duurstede , a riverside town about 20 kilometres ( 12 mi ) from utrecht , with a dominant cylindrical windmill . in this composition , ruisdael united typical dutch elements of low - lying land , water and expansive sky , so that they converge on the equally characteristic dutch windmill . the painting 's enduring popularity is evidenced by card sales in the rijksmuseum , with the windmill ranking third after rembrandt 's night watch and vermeer 's view of delft . windmills featured throughout ruisdael 's entire career . various panoramic views of the haarlem skyline and its bleaching grounds appear during this stage , a specific genre called , with the clouds creating various gradations of alternating bands of light and shadow towards the horizon . the paintings are often dominated by saint bavo 's church , in which ruisdael would one day be buried . while amsterdam does feature in his work , it does so relatively rarely given that ruisdael lived there for over 25 years . it does feature in his only known architectural subject , a drawing of the interior of the old church , as well as in views of the dam , and the panoramic view of the amstel looking toward amsterdam , one of ruisdael 's last paintings . figures are introduced sparingly into ruisdael 's compositions , and are by this period rarely from his own hand but executed by various artists , including his pupil meindert hobbema , nicolaes berchem , adriaen van de velde , philips wouwerman , jan vonck , thomas de keyser , gerard van and jan . attributions in his 2001 catalogue raisonné , slive attributes 694 paintings to ruisdael and lists another 163 paintings with dubious or , he believes , incorrect attribution . there are three main reasons why there is uncertainty over whose hand painted various ruisdael - style landscapes . firstly , four members of the ruysdael family were landscapists with similar signatures , some of which were later fraudulently altered into jacob 's . this is further complicated by the fact that ruisdael used variations of his signature . this typically reads " " or the monogram " " , sometimes using a small italic ' s ' and sometimes a gothic long ' s ' , such as on landscape with waterfall . secondly , many 17th century landscape paintings are unsigned and could be from pupils or copyists . finally , fraudsters imitated ruisdaels for financial gain , with the earliest case reported by houbraken in 1718 : a certain jan the elder could imitate ruisdael 's style so well that he often sold them for real ruisdaels , especially with figurines added in the style of the artist wouwerman . there is no large - scale systematic approach to ascertaining ruisdael 's attributions , unlike the forensic science used to find the correct attributions of rembrandt 's paintings through the rembrandt research project . legacy ruisdael has shaped landscape painting traditions from the english romantics to the barbizon school in france , and the hudson river school in the us , as well as generations of dutch landscape artists . among the english artists influenced by ruisdael are thomas gainsborough , j. m. w. turner , and john constable . gainsborough drew , in black chalk and grey wash , a replica of a ruisdael in the 1740s — now both paintings are housed in the louvre in paris . turner made many copies of ruisdaels and even painted fantasy views of a nonexistent port he called port ruysdael . constable also copied various drawings , etchings and paintings by ruisdael , and was a great admirer from a young age . " it haunts my mind and clings to my heart " , he wrote after seeing a ruisdael . however , he thought jewish cemetery was a failure , because he considered that it attempted to convey something outside the reach of art . in the 19th century , vincent van gogh acknowledged ruisdael as a major influence , calling him sublime , but at the same time saying it would be a mistake to try to copy him . van gogh had two ruisdael prints , the bush and a , on his wall , and thought the ruisdaels in the louvre were " magnificent , especially the bush , the breakwater and the ray of light " . his experience of the french countryside was informed by his memory of ruisdael 's art . van gogh 's contemporary claude monet is also said to be indebted to ruisdael . even piet 's minimalism has been traced back to ruisdael 's panoramas . among art historians and critics , ruisdael 's reputation has had its ups and downs over the centuries . the first account , in 1718 , is from houbraken , who waxed lyrical over the technical mastery which allowed ruisdael to realistically depict water in waterfalls and the sea . in 1781 , sir joshua reynolds , founder of the royal academy , admired the freshness and force of ruisdael 's landscapes . a couple of decades later other english critics were less impressed . in 1801 , henry fuseli , professor at the royal academy , expressed his contempt for the entire dutch school of landscape , dismissing it as no more than a " transcript of the spot " , a mere " enumeration of hill and dale , clumps of trees " . of note is that one of fuseli 's students was constable , whose admiration for ruisdael remained unchanged . around the same time in germany , the writer , statesman and scientist johann wolfgang von goethe lauded ruisdael as a thinking artist , even a poet , saying " he demonstrates remarkable skill in locating the exact point at which the creative faculty comes into contact with a lucid mind " . john ruskin however , in 1860 , raged against ruisdael and other dutch golden age landscapists , calling their landscapes places where " we lose not only all faith in religion but all remembrance of it " . in 1915 , the dutch art historian abraham bredius called his compatriot not so much a painter as a poet . more recent art historians have rated ruisdael highly . kenneth clark described him as " the greatest master of the natural vision before constable " . waldemar januszczak finds him a marvellous storyteller . januszczak does not consider ruisdael the greatest landscape artist of all time , but is especially impressed by his works as a teenager : " a prodigy whom we should rank at number 8 or 9 on the mozart scale " . slive states ruisdael is acknowledged " by general consent , as the pre - eminent landscapist of the golden age of dutch art " . ruisdael is now seen as the leading artist of the " classical " phase in dutch landscape art , which built upon the realism of the previous " tonal " phase . the tonal phase suggested atmosphere through the use of tonality , while the classical phase strived for a more grandiose effect , with paintings built up through a serious of vigorous contrasts of solid form against the sky , and of light against shade , with a tree , animal , or windmill often singled out . although many of ruisdael 's works were on show in the art treasures exhibition , manchester 1857 , and various other grand exhibitions across the world since , it was not until 1981 that an exhibition was solely dedicated to ruisdael . over fifty paintings and thirty - five drawings and etchings were exhibited , first at the mauritshuis in the hague , then , in 1982 , at the fogg museum in cambridge , massachusetts . in 2006 , the royal academy in london hosted a ruisdael master of landscape exhibition , displaying works from over fifty collections . interpretation there are no 17th century documents to indicate , either at first or second hand , what ruisdael intended to convey through his art . while the jewish cemetery is universally accepted as an allegory for the fragility of life , how other works should be interpreted is much disputed . at one end of the spectrum is henry fuseli , who contends they have no meaning at all , and are simply a depiction of nature . at the other end is franz theodor kugler who sees meaning in almost everything : " they all display the silent power of nature , who opposes with her mighty hand the petty activity of man , and with a solemn warning as it were , repels his encroachments " . in the middle of the spectrum are scholars such as e. john walford , who sees the works as " not so much bearers of narrative or emblematic meanings but rather as images reflecting the fact that the visible world was essentially perceived as manifesting inherent spiritual significance " . walford advocates abandoning the notion of " disguised symbolism " . all of ruisdael 's work can be interpreted according to the religious world view of his time : nature serves as the " first book " of god , both because of its inherent divine qualities and because of god 's obvious concern for man and the world . the intention is spiritual , not moral . andrew graham - dixon asserts all dutch golden age landscapists could not help but search everywhere for meaning . he says of the windmill in the windmill at wijk bij duurstede that it symbolises " the sheer hard work needed to keep holland above water and to safeguard the future of the nation 's children " . the symmetries in the landscapes are " reminders to fellow citizens always to remain on the straight and narrow " . slive is more reluctant to read too much into the work , but does put the windmill in its contemporary religious context of man 's dependence on the " spirit of the lord for life " . with regards to interpreting ruisdael 's scandinavian paintings , he says " my own view is that it strains credulity to the breaking point to propose that he himself conceived of all his depictions of waterfalls , torrents and rushing streams and dead trees as visual sermons on the themes of and vanitas " . collections ruisdaels are scattered across collections globally , both private and institutional . the most notable collections are at the national gallery in london , which holds twenty paintings ; the rijksmuseum in amsterdam , which holds sixteen paintings ; and the hermitage museum in saint petersburg , which holds nine . in the us , the metropolitan museum of art in new york has five ruisdaels in its collection , and the j. paul getty museum in california has three . on occasion a ruisdael changes hands . in 2014 , dunes by the sea was auctioned at christie 's in new york , and realised a price of $ 1 , 805 , 000 . of his surviving drawings , 140 in total , the rijksmuseum , the teylers museum in haarlem , dresden 's - kabinett , and the hermitage each hold significant collections . ruisdael 's rare etchings are spread across institutions . no collection holds a print of each of the thirteen etchings . of the five unique prints , the british museum holds two , two are in the albertina in vienna , and one is in amsterdam . context ruisdael and his art should not be considered apart from the context of the incredible wealth and significant changes to the land that occurred during the dutch golden age . in his study on 17th - century dutch art and culture , simon schama remarks that " it can never be overemphasized that the period between 1550 and 1650 , when the political identity of an independent netherlands nation was being established , was also a time of dramatic physical alteration of its landscape " . ruisdael 's depiction of nature and emergent dutch technology are wrapped up in this . christopher joby places ruisdael in the religious context of the calvinism of the dutch republic . he states that landscape painting does conform to calvin 's requirement that only what is visible may be depicted in art , and that landscape paintings such as those of ruisdael have an epistemological value which provides further support for their use within reformed churches . the art historian yuri kuznetsov places ruisdael 's art in the context of the war of independence against spain . dutch landscape painters " were called upon to make a portrait of their homeland , twice rewon by the dutch people – first from the sea and later from foreign invaders " . jonathan israel , in his study of the dutch republic , calls the period between 1647 and 1672 the third phase of dutch golden age art , in which wealthy merchants wanted large , opulent and refined paintings , and civic leaders filled their town halls with grand displays containing republican messages . as well , ordinary middle class dutch people began buying art for the first time , creating a high demand for paintings of all kinds . this demand was met by enormous painter guilds . master painters set up studios to produce large numbers of paintings quickly . under the master 's direction , studio members would specialise in parts of a painting , such as figures in landscapes , or costumes in portraits and history paintings . masters would sometimes add a few touches to authenticate a work mostly done by pupils , to maximise both speed and price . numerous art dealers organised commissions on behalf of patrons , as well as buying uncommissioned stock to sell on . landscape artists did not depend on commissions in the way most painters had to do , and could therefore paint for stock . in ruisdael 's case , it is not known whether he kept stock to sell directly to customers , or sold his work through dealers , or both . art historians only know of one commission , a work for the wealthy amsterdam burgomaster cornelis de graeff , jointly painted with thomas de keyser .