Jacob van Ruisdael
Dutchman Jacob van Ruisdael specialized in landscape painting already at the beginning of his career. He hardly ever traveled, but instead studied the landscape of his native land. In pictures such as Grove of Large Oak Trees at the Edge of a Pond, however, he lent something sublime to Dutch painting that others had hitherto sought from Italian painters.
Ruisdael depicts a simple subject here. On the left edge of the picture is a pond, behind which the silhouette of a town can be recognized in the evening light. The center of the middle ground is occupied by gnarled oaks, which are heightened to dramatic effect above a low-lying horizon. In their shade, cows and sheep are grazing in the custody of a shepherd. These so-called staffage figures enliven the picture and take away its solitude. They were not added by Ruisdael himself, but by a staffage painter who specialized in them.
On the right, a mighty cloud formation towers above a wooded landscape of hills. In the very foreground lies a toppled and broken tree. It is not simply a portrayal but symbolizes with dramatic force the transience of even the mighty and haughty. Therefore, Ruisdael’s painting does not want to be seen primarily as a depiction of a landscape’s reality, but as an allegory. In this painting the artist combined the simple compositional scheme of Dutch painting with the innovations of the Italianates and thus created a heroic landscape.
We present today's calm landscape thanks to the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe.
P.S. Have you heard of Frans Post, another Dutch landscape artist, who in comparison to Ruisdael traveled all the way to Brazil? Check out his "exotic" landscapes. <3
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