RUYSDAEL (or RUISDAEL), JACOB VAN (c. 1682), the most celebrated of the Dutch landscapists, was born at Haarlem. It is not known where he studied. His father, Isaak, was a framemaker, who also painted and it is suggested that Jacob studied first under him and that he was then under his uncle Solomon Ruisdael (c. 1600-167o) an able landscapist. The influence of Cornelisy Vroom, another Haarlem landscapist, has also been traced in his early work; other authorities make him the pupil of Albert van Everdingen. The earliest date that ap pears on his paintings and etchings is 1646. Two years later he was admitted a member of the gild of St. Luke in Haarlem; in 1659 he obtained the freedom of the city of Amsterdam, and in 1668 his name appears there as a witness to the marriage of Hobbema. During his lifetime his works were little appreciated, and he seems to have suffered from poverty. In 1681 the sect of the Mennonites obtained his admission into the almshouse of the town, where he died on March 14, 1682.
The works of Ruysdael may be studied in the Louvre and the National Gallery, London, and in the collections at The Hague, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Dresden and Leningrad. His favourite subjects are simple woodland scenes, similar to those of Van Ever dingen and Hobbema. He is especially noted as a painter of trees, and his rendering of foliage is characterized by the greatest spirit and precision. His views of distant cities, such as that of Haarlem in the possession of the marquess of Bute, and that of Katwijk in the Glasgow Corporation galleries, clearly indicate the influence of Rembrandt. He frequently paints coast-scenes and sea-pieces, but it is in his rendering of lonely forest glades (such as "The Pool in the Wood" at Leningrad) that we find him at his best. The subjects of certain of his mountain scenes seem to be taken from Norway, and have led to the supposition that he had travelled in that country. We have, however, no record of
such a journey, and the works in question are probably merely adaptations from the landscapes of Van Everdingen, whose man ner he copied at one period. Otto Beit owns a magnificent view of the "Castle of Bentheim" (1653) from which it may be concluded that his wanderings extended to Germany, where he may have made studies for the waterfalls and torrents which appear in many of his pictures. Only a single architectural subject from his brush is known—an admirable interior of the New Church, Amsterdam, in the possession of the marquess of Bute. The prevailing hue of his landscapes is a full rich green, which, how ever, has darkened with time, while a clear grey tone is charac teristic of his sea-pieces. The art of Ruysdael, while it shows little of the scientific knowledge of later landscapists, is sensi tive and poetic in sentiment, and direct and skilful in technique. Figures are sparingly introduced into his compositions, and are believed to be from the brush of Adrian Vandevelde, Philip Wou werman, Nikolaas Berchem, Eglon van der Neer, Ostade and Jan Lingelbach.
Unlike the other great Dutch landscape painters, Ruysdael did not aim at a pictorial record of particular scenes, but he care fully thought out and arranged his compositions. He particularly excels in the painting of cloudy skies which are spanned dome like over the landscape. A romantic and sometimes deeply poetic sentiment is expressed in his work, as in "The Jewish Burial Ground" at Dresden which is regarded as one of the greatest landscapes ever painted. The "Cornfield" and the "Travellers," etchings, are also significant expressions of landscape art.
See Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue of Dutch Painters (1912).