NARRATOR:
A lanky man, his hands clasped behind his back, is trudging along a sunlit dune, while a horse-drawn cart rattles down the road in front of him. In the distance, the roof of a humble house rises above the engulfing sand, as dark, heavy clouds sweep the sky, and foliage bends in the gusty wind. Any moment it will rain.
These are impressions of an afternoon walk along the dunes of West Haarlem, casually glimpsed in 1628 by the Dutch painter Salomon van Ruysdael. He is best known for his near monochromatic landscapes painted in subtle greys, greens, washed-out yellows, blues and browns. They convey the unique quality of light in Holland and the dampness of its landscape by the sea. Unity of form, color and atmosphere in this so-called “tonal phase” of Dutch art signified a growing interest in the particularities of Dutch geography and, by extension, its culture.
Earlier Dutch landscape paintings were often sweeping vistas minutely described in local color. Here, grandeur has been replaced by intimacy, universality by an emphasis on the familiar and accidental. The vantage point is low, as if we could reach out and touch the land. Van Ruysdael’s direct and unembellished interpretations of Haarlem dunes dramatically redefined 17th-century landscape painting, quickly establishing him as one of the most influential artists in Holland.
Landscape with Sandy Road
1628
Salomon van Ruysdael (Dutch, 1602/3-1670)
On View
Late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Dutch landscape paintings were primarily panoramic views painted with a multiplicity of design and color. In the 1620s, a group of artists in Haarlem—Esias van de Velde, Jan van Goyen, Pieter Molijn and Salomon van Ruysdael—began to turn to their native countryside for subject matter. They developed a more unified structure by employing a common tonality throughout their paintings. Ruysdael signed this jewel of a painting “Ruyesdael.” By 1630–31 he dropped the first “e” in his signature.
Details
- Artist Name: Salomon van Ruysdael (Dutch, 1602/3-1670)
- Title: Landscape with Sandy Road
- Date: 1628
- Medium: Oil on panel
- Dimensions: 11-1/4 x 15-1/2 in. (28.6 x 39.4 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1970.15.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
Anonymous (sale, London, Sotheby’s, 7 December 1932, lot 67, to “Collings”);
Leo Collins (a.k.a. Cohen/Collings), Vienna.
[D. A. Hoogendijk & Co., Amsterdam, ca. November, 1934- still in 1936].
[E.J. van Wisselingh & Co., Amsterdam, sold 1970 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Leo Collins (a.k.a. Cohen/Collings), Vienna.
[D. A. Hoogendijk & Co., Amsterdam, ca. November, 1934- still in 1936].
[E.J. van Wisselingh & Co., Amsterdam, sold 1970 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Tentoonstelling oude kunst uit het bezit van den internationalen handel
- Rijksmuseum, 1936-07 to 1936-09
- Catalogus van de tentoonstelling van oude kunst uit ket bezit van den internationalen handel,no. 141
- Sutton, Peter C., et al., Masters of 17th Century Dutch Landscape Painting, p.35, 466
- Stechow, Wolfgang, Dutch Landscape Painting in the Seventeenth Century, p. 26
- H., Maandblad voor Beeldende Kunsten, pp. 55-59
- Stechow, Wolfgang, Salomon van Ruysdael,no. 227, fig. 6 pp. 17-18
- Stechow, Wolfgang, Salomon van Ruysdael,no. 227, fig. 3 p. 17-18
- Benesch, Otto, From an art Historian's Workshop,fig. 22 p. 23
- Norton Simon Museum, Selected Paintings at the Norton Simon Museum,1980, p. 63
- Sutton, Peter C., A Guide to Dutch Art in America, p. 217
- Liedtke, Walter, Apollo, p. 24
- Schama, Simon, Masters of 17th Century Dutch Landscape Painting,fig. 3 p. 67
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum,1989, p. 68
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best,2010, cat. 741 p. 334
- H., Maandblad voor beeldende kunsten, p. 378
- Gerson, Horst, The Connoisseur,fig. 8
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