Circle of Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael (Dutch 1628-1682)

Artist: Circle of Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael (Dutch 1628-1682).
Title: Travellers crossing a bridge in a wooded landscape Circa 1660.
Medium: Oil on canvas.
Framed Size: Height 59.5 cm x Width 67.5 cm x Depth 6 cm.
Image Size: Height 38 cm x Width 46 cm x Depth 3 cm.
Condition: The Painting is in very good condition. Recently conserved with stabilisation of crazing paint, cleaned and re-varnished. A conservation report is included with the sale. Prior restoration includes relining, likely during the 19th century, during which it was placed onto a later stretcher. Some small areas of in-painting are present, however, this work presents very well with all wear commensurate with age. No signatures or markings are apparent.
Provenance: Private Collection Sydney Australia.

About: This Flemish 17th Century oil on canvas is indicative of the 1650s-60s when Ruisdael travelled in the wooded hill country of Germany near the Dutch border and is reminiscent of works such as "The Forest Storm" Circa 1660. During this period, Ruisdael’s romantic landscapes often portrayed wooded and rocky landscapes with peasants, travellers, streams and crossings. Thus many of the titles are descriptive representations of the works themselves.

Around 1656, Ruisdael's affinity with these subjects was reinforced when he settled in Amsterdam and became familiar with the Scandinavian landscapes of Allart van Everdingen (1621-1675).

Although many of the compositions by Ruisdael and his contemporaries are often capriccio’s, the elements of those landscapes probably did exist. Interestingly the location of the bridge in this work is reminiscent albeit from a different angle of “Draftsman on a Stone before a Bridge” circa 1609, an engraving by Aegidius Sadeler II, after the painting by Roelant Savery.

According to Arnold Houbraken, who is considered the pre-eminent biographer of Dutch golden age painters, Roelant Savery 1576-1639 was one of the masters of Allart van Everdingen, the artist who influenced much of Ruisdael's style in this period. This etching is held in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Inventory No. 1943.3.7619.

Jacob van Ruisdael is considered the pre-eminent landscape artist of the Dutch Golden Age and was known to have produced over 150 Scandinavian views. He worked within a close circle of artists that included his own father Isaack van Ruisdael, uncle Salomon van Ruysdael and Meindert Hobbema 1638-1709, his only registered pupil.

There are many works of the period that share artistic traits creating difficulty in attribution along with scholarly conjecture. “Travellers Crossing a Bridge in a Wooded Landscape” is an exemplary work from an important period in Dutch Art history and European Landscape painting of the 17th century and beyond.