Salomon van Ruysdael lived in Haarlem and was the uncle of painter Jacob van Ruisdael. Salomon was among the artists who developed a new, naturalistic method of landscape painting that was uniquely Dutch in character. It featured simple themes – sand dunes, sky, travelers in the countryside. Thinly painted with delicate glazes, the scenes were described with a limited palette of colors. The style is referred to as the tonal phase of Dutch Landscape painting.
Here a covered wagon and a modest cart, traveling in different directions on the same road, stop at an inn. Passengers and animals take a moment to refresh themselves. The casual appearance of the scene is geometricall structured, however. The large central tree marks the apex of a triangle defined by the two roads continuing obliquely on either side. A shaded patch of earth in the foreground acts as a repoussoir, pushing the central scene back and thereby increasing the sense of depth. Nothing seems forced though as the billowing clouds and raking light suggest the late afternoon pleasures of a day in the country.
Details
- Artist Name: Salomon van Ruysdael (Dutch, 1602/3-1670)
- Title: Halt in Front of an Inn
- Date: 1643
- Medium: Oil on panel
- Dimensions: 24-1/8 x 36-1/2 in. (61.3 x 92.7 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1970.09.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
[A. S. Drey, Munich, ca. 1925, according to RKD photo mount].
Walter Riess, Leipzig, in 1929, possibly still in 1938.
Jules Roos, Amsterdam and later Westmount, Quebec, by 1944, by inheritance to his son ca. 1968/1969;
Walter Roos, Palm Harbor, Florida, sold October 1, 1969, to;
[Rosenberg and Stiebel, Inc., New York, sold 1970 to;]
The Norton Simon Foundation.
[on loan]
- Oberlin College, Dudley Peter Allen Art Museum, 1970-03-19 to 1970-08-25
- Leipzig, Statdsmuseum, Alte Meister aus Privatbesitz,no. 94
- Stechow, Wolfgang, Salomon van Ruysdael, eine Einfuhrung in seine Kunst,no. 147 pp. 21, 84
- Art Association, Loan Exhibition of Great Paintings: Five Centuries of Dutch Art,no. 40
- Sutton, Peter C., et al., Masters of 17th Century Dutch Landscape Painting,fig. 1 p. 470
- Art News, p. 20
- Norton Simon Museum, Selected Paintings at the Norton Simon Museum,1980, p. 63
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best,2010, cat. 729 p. 332
- Drucker, Peter F., Adventures of a Bystander, p. 209
- Sutton, Peter C., A Guide to Dutch Art in America, p. 217
- Stechow, Wolfgang, Dutch Landscape Painting in the Seventeenth Century,fig. p. 27
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum,1989, p. 67
- Stechow, Wolfgang, Salomon van Ruysdael,no. 147, ill. 21 pp. 21f., 90
- Gerson, Horst, The Connoisseur,fig. 9 pp. 162-171
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