SALOMON VAN RUYSDAEL | A DUNE LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES AND A VIEW OF NIJMEGEN CATHEDRAL

Anonymous sale, Paris, 23 March 1931, lot 13;

With Georges Wildenstein, Paris;

Confiscated from the above by Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, 8 February 1941 and allocated for the Goering Collection (inv. G 414), transferred the Jeu de Paume, 15 January 1943, and stored at Berchtesgaden (inv. 564);

Munich Central Collecting Point (inv. 5609)(as “Goyen, Jan van”), 29 July 1945;

Repatriated to the French government, 27 March 1946, and restituted to the Wildenstein family, 21 March 1947;

With Wildenstein and Co., Buenos Aires by 1948;

Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Private Collector") New York, Christie's, 31 May 1991, lot 30A;

There acquired by the present collector.

W. Stechow, Salomon van Ruysdael, Berlin 1975, p. 107, cat. no. 258.

Salomon van Ruysdael was one of the leading figures in landscape painting of the Dutch Golden Age. Like his contemporary Jan van Goyen, Ruysdael's style was influenced by Pieter Molyn and the tonal school of landscape painting. Ruysdael, though, invented his own distinct pictorial tools to create harmonious compositions that not only set him apart from his contemporaries but also beautifully captured the landscape of his native country.    

Ruysdael is perhaps most well-known for his river landscapes, the earliest of which are dated to the 1630s. Over the next few decades, his palette would develop from of more monochromatic tone to that of more varied colors. The present painting is typical of his works from this prolific period. A soft, golden light sets the tone for the overall dune scene, enlivened by subtle tones of green and blue.