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]

Camille Pissarro - The Fence [1872]

Camille Pissarro - The Fence [1872], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Pissarro (French, 1830 - 1903), who was committed to socialist principles, identified strongly with the land and with the peasant farmers who worked it. He moved with his family from Paris in the 1860s to a number of small villages like Louveciennes. While many of his fellow impressionists chose subjects from modern life and leisure, sophisticated even if their settings were in the countryside, Pissarro preferred scenes of an older, more rural way of life like this garden fence and the small figures who pause in their work.

It was in the early 1870s that Pissarro made his most purely impressionist pictures, painted, as this one probably was, in a single session on the spot. The paint here is quickly applied, thick in some areas, much thinner in others. We can see, in the trees, for example, where one brushstroke has been pulled through an earlier one that still lay wet on the canvas.

[National Gallery of Art, Washington - Oil on canvas, 37.8 x 45.7 cm]

José Jiménez Aranda - The Small Naturalists [1893]

José Jiménez Aranda - The Small Naturalists [1893], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid - Oil on canvas, 48.5 x 62.5 cm]

Juan Martín Jiménez - The Toilet of a Roman Lady [c.1875-99]

Juan Martín Jiménez - The Toilet of a Roman Lady [c.1875-99], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Juan Martín Jiménez (1858 - 1901) was a Spanish painter.

[Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid - Oil on canvas, 85 x 146 cm]

Paul Mathey - Felicien Rops in His Studio

Paul Mathey - Felicien Rops in His Studio, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Paul Mathey (1844 - 1929) was a French artist. He was born in Paris, studied art at the studio of Leon Cogniet, and first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1868.

[Chateau de Versailles - Oil on canvas, 145 x 116 cm]

Henri Lehmann - Faustine Léo [1842]

Henri Lehmann - Faustine Léo [1842], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Lehmann (French, Kiel, 1814 - Paris, 1882), after Chassériau, Ingres's most accomplished student, executed several portraits, both painted and drawn, of his first cousin Faustine Léo. This portrait clearly emulates Ingres's example, notably in its smooth, polished surface and the crisply delineated contours of the figure. Yet, its intensely saturated palette and intimate mood set Lehmann's work apart from that of his master. The portrait bears its original frame.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 100 x 81.3 cm]

Henry Scott Tuke - At the Metal Merchant [1888]

Henry Scott Tuke - At the Metal Merchant [1888], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

[Bukowski's Autumn Classic Sale, Stockholm - Oil on canvas, 137 x 104 cm]