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#106: By Xavier F. Salomon, Chief Curator Transcript

This recent addition to The Frick Collection—a gift from Trustee Kate Feldstein in memory of Martin Feldstein—is a dramatically lit view of the Dutch dunes. In the 1620s, Salomon van Ruysdael and a group of other young artists active in Haarlem took their inspiration from their immediate surroundings, turning their attention to the local landscape instead of conjuring imaginative views of distant lands.

In this relatively small work, Ruysdael evokes the sandy hills that separate Haarlem from the North Sea, a dirt road guiding viewers alongside a collapsed hayrick and a somewhat dilapidated farmhouse that, judging from the whiff of smoke coming from its chimney, provides shelter.

The fluidity of brushwork and muted palette heighten the anticipation of a coming storm, enhancing the stark contrasts between light and dark. Threatening clouds sweep in from the right, their shadows catching up with a resting traveler and about to envelope the house. Ruysdael masterfully captures both the beauty and the harshness of the countryside.

In the lower right corner, just below the rickety wooden fence, the painter inscribed his name and the date, 1628. This is one of Ruysdael’s earliest known works.

Landscape with Farmhouse

 (Dutch, ca. 1602–1670)
Date1628
MediumOil on panel
Dimensions12 15/16 × 16 3/4 × 1/2 in. (32.9 × 42.5 × 1.3 cm)
Credit LineGift of Kathleen Feldstein in memory of Martin Feldstein, 2020
Accession number2020.1.01
Oil painting of river bank with boats and people
Salomon van Ruysdael
ca. 1667
Oil painting of river with boats
Follower of Jan van de Cappelle
ca. 1645–65
Oil painting of figures and horse outside of house
Isack van Ostade
ca. 1635–49
Oil painting of a standing man wearing a fur coat
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
1631
Oil painting of a landscape with a figure and horse standing by a river
Jacob van Ruisdael
1652
Oil painting of landscape with house and trees
Meindert Hobbema
1665
Oil painting of cows and a herdsman by a river
Aelbert Cuyp
after 1650
oil painting of St. Francis in the Desert
Giovanni Bellini
ca. 1475–80
Oil painting of three soldiers holding musical instruments
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
1568
oil painting of Sir Thomas More wearing a black cap, a black velvet cloak with brown fur lining…
Hans Holbein the Younger
1527
oil painting of Thomas Cromwell seated at a table wearing a black hat and dark brown cloak with…
Hans Holbein the Younger
1532–33
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