(Haarlem c. 1628–1681 Amsterdam)
River landscape with wooded banks
signed at lower right: JvRuisdael,
oil on canvas, 55 x 67.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Possibly sale of the collection of the painter Gerard Hoet, The Hague, 1760, lot 123 (for 90 guilders to Pieter Yver);
sale, Peacock, London (Foster), 28/29 February 1844, lot 84 (for 140.14 pounds to Smith);
R. White Collection, Edinburgh;
the latter’s´sale, London, 1861 (for 120.15 pounds to Smith);
Collection of Baron Etienne Martin de Beurnonville, Paris;
sale of the Baron de Beurnonville Collection, Drouot, Paris, 9 May 1881, lot 445 (sold for 7,350 francs);
sale of the L. Tabourier Collection, Drouot, Paris, 20 June 1898, lot 184;
sale Nouveau Drouot, Paris, 20th November 1987, lot 14;
Private collection, Northern Germany;
European Private Collection

Literature:
C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten Holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, vol. 4, 1911, pp. 185/86, no. 589; J. Rosenberg, Jacob van Ruisdael, Berlin, 1928, no. 360;
S. Slive, Jacob van Ruisdael, A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings and Etchings, New Haven, 2011, p. 307, no. 407

We are grateful to Frits Duparc for confirming the attribution of the present painting after examination of the original.

This delicately composed and subtly observed landscape unites all of the characteristic features of Ruisdael’s art that made him one of the most pre-eminent landscape painters. The great connoisseur and art dealer John Smith, author of the Catalogue Raisonné of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters, owned this painting twice, in 1844 and again in 1861. The notes in Hofstede de Groot’s personal copy of the catalogue suggest that he also knew the original painting. He correctly remarked that the signature was in the picture’s lower right corner. Seymour Slive rightly included the picture in his catalogue raisonné, although he only knew it via an engraved reproduction by Benjamin Damman. Recent cleaning of the painting has restored it to its original beauty.

Jacob van Ruisdael is generally considered the most outstanding Dutch landscape painter of the ‘Golden Eeuw’, the 17th century. Although his extensive oeuvre consists exclusively of landscapes, he managed to arrive at amazing variations within the genre. His paintings inspired such artists as Thomas Gainsborough in the 18th century and John Constable in the 19th century. Walther Bernt writes about Ruisdael: ‘Ruisdael’s art influenced the entire output of landscape painting until the end of the 19th century. None of his countless contemporary imitators or the later copyists and forgers succeeded in expressing the deep gravity of his cosmic landscapes’.

Provenance:
Possibly sale of the collection of the painter Gerard Hoet, The Hague, 1760, lot 123 (for 90 guilders to Pieter Yver);
sale, Peacock, London (Foster), 28/29 February 1844, lot 84 (for 140.14 pounds to Smith);
R. White Collection, Edinburgh;
the latter’s´sale, London, 1861 (for 120.15 pounds to Smith);
Collection of Baron Etienne Martin de Beurnonville, Paris;
sale of the Baron de Beurnonville Collection, Drouot, Paris, 9 May 1881, lot 445 (sold for 7,350 francs);
sale of the L. Tabourier Collection, Drouot, Paris, 20 June 1898, lot 184;
sale Nouveau Drouot, Paris, 20th November 1987, lot 14;
Private collection, Northern Germany;
European Private Collection

Literature:
C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten Holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, vol. 4, 1911, pp. 185/86, no. 589; J. Rosenberg, Jacob van Ruisdael, Berlin, 1928, no. 360;
S. Slive, Jacob van Ruisdael, A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings and Etchings, New Haven, 2011, p. 307, no. 407

We are grateful to Frits Duparc for confirming the attribution of the present painting after examination of the original.

This delicately composed and subtly observed landscape unites all of the characteristic features of Ruisdael’s art that made him one of the most pre-eminent landscape painters. The great connoisseur and art dealer John Smith, author of the Catalogue Raisonné of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters, owned this painting twice, in 1844 and again 1861. The notes in Hofstede de Groot’s personal copy of the catalogue suggest that he also knew the original painting. He correctly remarked that the signature was in the picture’s lower right corner. Seymour Slive rightly included the picture in his catalogue raisonné, although he only knew it via an engraved reproduction by Benjamin Damman. Recent cleaning of the painting has restored it to its original beauty.

Jacob van Ruisdael is generally considered the most outstanding Dutch landscape painter of the ‘Golden Eeuw’, the 17th century. Although his extensive oeuvre comprises exclusively of landscapes, he managed to arrive at amazing variations within the genre. His paintings inspired such artists as Thomas Gainsborough in the 18th century and John Constable in the 19th century. Walther Bernt writes about Ruisdael: ‘Ruisdael’s art influenced the entire output of landscape painting until the end of the 19th century. None of his countless contemporary imitators or the later copyists and forgers succeeded in expressing the deep gravity of his cosmic landscapes’.