Salomon van Ruysdael Naarden 1600/3 - 1670 Haarlem

Presumably Charles Jennens (1700-1773) Ormond Street, London (see Dodsley, under Literature, 1761);
Thence by inheritance at Gopsal and Penn House to Francis, 5th Earl Howe, Penn House, Amersham, Buckinghamshire;
Sale, London, Christie's, 7 December 1933, lot 68, for 620 Guineas to Ellis and Smith:
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Deceased's Estate'), London, Christie's, 9 July 1999, lot 30, where acquired by the present owner.

Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, Hidden Treasures, 27 July - 17 October 1993, no. 50.

Probably R. & J. Dodsley (publ.) London and its Environs described, London 1761, vol. V, p. 93 ('A Landscape, by Salomon Ruysdale' or 'A landscape, by Sal. Ruysdale');
The Illustrated London News, 11 November 1933, p. 776;
W. Stechow, Salomon van Ruysdael, Berlin,1975, p. 120, no. 342;
C. Whistler, C. White, and R. Baird, Hidden Treasures, exhibition catalogue, Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, 27 July - 17 October 1993, p. 38, no. 50, reproduced p. 37.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a single piece of oak, slightly thicker than usual and with bevelling only at the sides. It is perfectly flat, clearly never having moved at all, with no trace of raised or flaking paint, and scarcely any craquelure but characteristic sweeps of decisive brushwork. There has been a recent restoration with just a few small retouchings around the extreme edges of the sky and water, and rather more in the top corners. Occasional minor surface touches slightly strengthen the sky, in the clouds above the central roof and a line or two in the sweeping brushwork of the right sky, with one similar fine line in the water on the right. The cottage roofs with their reflection in the water, are a little thin as is some of the lower foliage nearby, but elsewhere the foreground, the foliage and the lovely skyline on the right is finely preserved. The granular blue in the sky has been overlaid with clouds in some upper areas, in semi pentiments, but the remarkable technique ensured that this added an extra effect to the complex naturalism of the sky as it aged and grew more transparent. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"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."

Salomon van Ruysdael painted a number of river landscapes in the 1640s that are composed according to a similar scheme: a diagonal receding gently to the right, with trees on the river bank massed to the left, forming a natural repoussoir, often with low buidings in the centre, and small vessels on the horizon visible at the extreme right.  Often, as here, a leaning post or a floating barrel anchors the lower right corner.  Ruysdael was using a broadly similar compositional scheme earlier than this, as early indeed as 1632, but by the mid-1640s such river landscapes became more monumental, and because of the natural sense of order within them, more tranquil.  An excellent example, similar to the present picture, is the River Landscape of 1645 in a private collection.¹ Ruysdael's riverbank trees, generally willows, usually lean towards the centre of the composition, so that if they are at the left, they lean towards the right, and in pictures where the composition is reversed and they are at the right, they lean to the left.  Like his nephew, Jacob van Ruisdael, Salomon van Ruysdael was attuned to the seasons and to the weather conditions of his native land.  Consequently, when he paints trees leaning away from the prevailing wind, he paints skies that show the clouds moving in the same direction: in the present picture from left to right.

Charles Jennens (1700-1773) was best known for his close association with George Friedrich Handel, with whom he worked on the libretto for The Messiah.  He formed a major collection of Old Masters for his London house. He also patronised such contemporaries painters as Francis Hayman, and owned the celebrated portrait of Handel by Sir Thomas Hudson, now in the National Portrait Gallery in London.  The collection was largely dispersed at Christie's in 1933.  While diverse in scope, the cornerstone of the collection were the Dutch pictures: a classic Aelbert Cuyp, an outstanding Frans Hals, and major works by Adriaen van Ostade.  His landscapes included works by Hobbema, Salomon van Ruysdael (two),  and Jacob van Ruisdael (five).

1.  See P.C. Sutton, Masters of 17th-Century Dutch Landscape Painting, exhibition catalogue, Boston 1988, pp. 471-2, no. 93, reproduced, and in colour plate 47.