Salomon van Ruysdael

The Grafen von Finkenstein, Bavaria, by 1840, until the 1990s;
With Johnny van Haeften, London, and Otto Naumann, New York, from whom acquired by the present owner in 1998.

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 fine large bevelled oak panel with two joints, neither of which have opened or been retouched. The exceptionally perfect preservation of this painting is a tribute to the artist's remarkable technique, including the selection of the panel, which has remained completely flat over centuries, with no flaking or movement. The luminosity of the paint is also perfectly preserved, as is the crispness and flow of the brushwork with its rich oil medium. All the foliage is intact down the outermost leaves against the sky. The carriage has grown slightly more transparent naturally over time where it was added over the path. The turn of the bare tree trunk appears also to have a pentiment where it was slightly altered by the artist. There is a single old damage by the skyline on the left just above the more distant trees, which has been retouched. The condition is most exceptionally fine. 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."

Painted in 1646, this beautifully preserved river landscape is an outstanding work from Salomon van Ruysdael's full maturity, directly following his 'tonal phase' of the late 1630s and early 1640s. Under a vast, bright blue sky, scattered with the remaining cloud from a recently passed storm, left in evidence by the shallow lying water on the country road, a herdsman drives his cattle past two fishermen slouching lazily on the river bank beneath a lonesome tree. Beyond, an elegantly dressed family approaches a small village church in an open carriage. Built along a shallow right to left diagonal, this serene scene of daily life in rural Holland encapsulates all the lyricism of Ruysdael's finest summer landscapes.

The mid-1640s were Ruysdael's most productive years. His palette became richer and more colourful and his interpretations of the surrounding landscape more complex. This may have been due in part to the influence of the Italianizing artists or, as is more likely, in response to the increasing popularity of the landscapes of his nephew, Jacob van Ruisdael, whose monumental skies and verdant landscapes would soon see him depose his uncle Salomon as the leading landscape painter in The Netherlands. 

By adopting such a low viewpoint Ruysdael has placed enormous emphasis on the sky, to which he devotes well over three-quarters of the picture surface. Above the horizon the paint has been applied in thick, creamy brushstrokes and the smoke rising from the cottage chimney is nonchalantly conveyed by making circular motions with the end of the brush in the wet paint. The combination of such details with, for example, the minutely observed foliage on the trees and the silvery reflection of the sky in the foreground puddle, adds a pleasing narrative to this pastoral scene which can be considered amongst the artist's most successful, and indeed individual, works of the 1640s.

A variant of the present painting, also dated 1646, is today in the Museum Boymans-van Beuningen in Rotterdam.¹

1. Inv. no. 2623; museum catalogue, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Old Paintings, Rotterdam 1972, p. 221, reproduced p. 57.