Salomon van Ruysdael - A View of Rhenen seen from the West [1648]

Salomon van Ruysdael - A View of Rhenen seen from the West [1648], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The river in the foreground is the Rhine. On the horizon is the town of Rhenen (Province of Utrecht) with the tower of Cunerakerk and the 'Koningshuis', the residence of Frederick V, King of Bohemia and Elector of the Palatinate and his wife, Maria Stuart. The diagonals formed by the river banks and the clouds are carefully balanced by the cattle and sail boat in the foreground. 

Van Ruysdael (1600/03 - 1670) painted Rhenen on two other occasions. The paintings are now in Los Angeles (Getty Museum) and Merion, Pennsylvania (Barnes Foundation Museum of Art). A prolific painter, Ruysdael specialised throughout his life in river and estuary scenes, of which the earliest dated example is of 1626. His earlier paintings, like van Goyen's, are modest in theme and restricted in colour, the later works becoming more elaborate.

[National Gallery, London - Oil on wood, 30.5 x 41.3 cm]