Salomon van Ruysdael

William Dickinson, Wickham Hall, West Wickham, Kent, 1862;

Thence by descent until sold, London, Christie's, 10 December 1948, lot 68, for 900 guineas to Drews;

With Eugene Slatter, London, 1949;

From whom probably acquired, like other Old Masters, by Albert Ehrman (1890–1969), London (recorded by Stechow as in his collection in 1975);

Thence by descent.

London, British Institution, 1862, no. 92;

London, Eugene Slatter Gallery, Dutch and Flemish Masters, 27 May – 9 July 1949, no. 5.

W. Stechow, Salomon Van Ruysdael: eine Einführung in seine Kunst, mit kritischem Katalog der Gemälde, Berlin 1938, cat. no. 603;

Connoisseur, vol. LXXIII, June 1949, p. XL, reproduced;

W. Stechow, Salomon van Ruysdael, Berlin 1975, p. 152, cat. no. 534A.

The following condition report is provided by Henry Gentle who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Salomon Van Ruisdael A river scene with figures in a rowing boat in the foreground The oak panel is flat and in good condition. There is a reinforced central horizontal weakness which has developed into a hairline split of approximately 5 cm to the right hand side. The paint layer is stable and secure and very well preserved. There is visible degraded restoration to the hairline split and to one or two minor losses in the sky. The fine delicate details and the paint texture are in excellent original condition and have been unaffected by any earlier intervention . The removal of the discoloured varnish would improve the tonality and reveal the strength and vibrancy that the colours still retain. Overall, the painting is in a very good preserved state.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Painted in 1664, this painting is a characteristic example from Ruysdael's late maturity, depicting a subject that he returned to repeatedly throughout his career – according to Stechow in some 280 paintings – that of a river landscape. 1664 was one of the most prolific years of Ruysdael's final decade, in which he produced the magnificent view of the Ruins of Egmond Abbey.¹ 

The present work is executed with all the rich tones of the saturated greens, blues and reds and vigorous brushwork that typify Ruysdael's later work, in contrast to the lighter, tonal palette of the 1630s and early 1640s, for which he was famed during that decade. The effect here is to enhance the brighter clouds lit from behind, which are formed with free, swiftly-applied brushstrokes, as well as the highlights in the reflection picked up in the gently rippling water, itself defined by contrasting dashes of impasto and smoother, glassier passages. Ruysdael employs the cluster of trees as a repoussoir on the left side, balanced by the sails of the boats further along the bank, as the viewer's eye is led, seemingly by a line of ducks, either in the water or in flight, to the illuminated horizon and silhouette of a church. The two dated river landscapes of the same year in the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, possibly originally pendants, are most comparable to the present work in their diagonal compositions, tonality and execution.²

Stechow considered a work of identical size, depicting the Pelikuspoort at Utrecht, also exhibited from the collection of William Dickinson in 1862 and in the sale of his pictures in 1948 as the preceding lot 67, to be the probable pendant to this picture, although they are dated one year apart.³

1. Inv. no. MJA332, Musée Jeanne d'Aboville, La Fère.

2. Inv. nos os I-766 and os I-767; see Stechow 1975, pp. 129 and 152, cat. nos 382B and 534B.

3. See Stechow 1975, p. 142, cat. no. 470B.