Salomon van Ruysdael - A Ferry on a River [1649]

Salomon van Ruysdael - A Ferry on a River [1649], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Salomon van Ruysdael (Dutch, 1600/03 - 1670), one of the leading landscape painters of his generation, was renowned for the atmospheric effects he created in his images of life along peaceful Dutch waterways. In the 1640s he helped lay the foundation for the classical period of Dutch landscape and influenced a generation of artists, including his nephew Jacob van Ruysdael, Meindert Hobbema, and Aelbert Cuyp.

Salomon’s Ferry on a River, signed and dated 1649, is both imposing in scale and visually compelling. It depicts a ferryboat filled with travelers, including some seated in a horse-drawn carriage, crossing a broad river near a turreted castle. A large clump of trees silhouetted against the windswept blue sky provides a framework for the animals and humans activating the scene. Light floods into this harmonious composition, illuminating the leaves of the trees as well as the distant sailboats and village church.

[National Gallery of Art, Washington - Oil on canvas, 39.2 x 52.5 inches]

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]