Salomon van Ruysdael

Salomon van Ruysdael’s landscape paintings often feature low horizon lines, clouds towering across a blue sky, clusters of trees, and placid waters. Using thin washes of paint on a light ground, he recorded the landscape and waterways around the Dutch city of Haarlem, where he lived. Here the body of water leads to the horizon, while the ferryboat balances the composition and offers a glimpse of everyday life in Holland. Collected by successful merchants and the Dutch nobility alike, scenes like this one represented a trend in Holland at that time toward landscapes depicting the virtues of the homeland and the poetics of the local.