Salomon van Ruysdael

Johannes Noll, Frankfurt;

His sale, Frankfurt, Prestel, 8 October 1912, lot 75, for 3,200 Mk.;

Anonymous sale, Berlin, Rudolph Lepke, 24 February 1914, lot 51, for 1,350 Mk.;

M.a Kanter, by 1942 (according to a label on the reverse);

Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Frederick Muller, 22 June 1954, lot 69;

With G. Cramer Oude Kunst, The Hague, 1962;

W.A. Semeyns de Vries van Doesburgh;

Thence by inheritance within his family until sold ('The Property of the late W.A. Semeyns de Vries van Doesburgh'), London, Sotheby's, 24 June 1964, lot 100, for £900, to F. McGill;

With Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam and London, 1986;

With Otto Naumann, New York;

By whom sold ('The Property of a Private Collector'), New York, Sotheby's, 3 June 1988, lot 48;

Where acquired.

Haarlem, July – September 1941, no. 62 (according to a mount at The RKD, The Hague);

The Hague, Kunstmuseum, on long-term loan, 1946–1955 (inv. no. 15-51; lent by M. a. Kanter, according to a label on the reverse);

Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, on long-term loan, 1987–1988.

W. Stechow, Salomon van Ruysdael, Berlin 1938, p. 94, no. 226;

W. Stechow, Salomon van Ruysdael, Berlin 1975, p. 102, no. 226.

This early work, dated 1628, by Salomon van Ruysdael depicts a winding path through the windswept dunes along the Dutch coast on a clear winter afternoon. The intimate scene, as much a study of light as of landscape, captures the diffuse illumination of the terrain, through which the viewer’s gaze is led. The sense of spatial recession is subtly reinforced by the inclusion of the horse and rider on the path at left and the pair of figures at right.