Salomon van Ruysdael

Sir Charles Edward Coleridge Cave, 4th Bt, (1927-1997), Sidbury Manor, Sidmouth;
By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 22 February 1956, lot 68, for £4,000 to Owen.

W. Stechow, Salomon van Ruysdael, Berlin 1975, p. 131, no. 401B.

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden, who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting on a fine oak panel has one joint two thirds of the way down and a slightly slanting very old crack right across not far from the top. These both have rows of recent wooden wedges supporting them behind. The panel appears otherwise to have remained flat and stable. In the thickest area of impasted foliage in the trees to the right there are some old ridges in the brushwork, which could perhaps need to be watched but which seem secure, with no trace of old flaking or retouching. Apart from the carpentry behind the painting seems to have been scarcely touched for some time, with a yellowed old varnish and old surface dirt or brownish tobacco smoke partially wiped aside patchily across the clouds and blues of the sky. There is some retouching along the joint and the crack but little to be seen elsewhere. The skyline is beautifully crisp and unworn as is the paint virtually throughout. 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."

This is a subject that Ruysdael painted on numerous occasions, particularly in the years around 1650.  He was remarkably consistent in his choice of compositional scheme: a wooded river bank to the right with buildings behind or beyond the trees, a flat-bottomed boat ferrying cattle (and here also a horse-drawn wagon) in the centre, and a riverscape receding to a distance to the left.  Sometimes the format is reversed, with the riverbank to the left, and often, as here, a distant church sits on the horizon.  Ruysdael placed different churches in the distances of his river landscapes, often without reference to their locales. Here he has sited the Sint Nicolaaskerk at Deventer, with its distinctive twin towers with spires, in an imaginary riverscape.