Oct 29, 2019

Christie's

Salomon van Ruysdael (Naarden 1600/3-1670 Haarlem) A wooded landscape with cattle, carriages on a track and an inn, a church beyond signed and dated 'S· VRVYSDAEL / 1644' (lower center, 'VR' in ligature) oil on panel 25 ¼ x 37 5/8 in. (64.2 x 95.7 cm.)

Jul 5, 2019

Christie's

May 22, 2019

Sotheby's

May 1, 2019

Christie's

May 22, 2018

Sotheby's

Jul 5, 2017

Sotheby's

Painted in 1664, this painting is a characteristic example from Ruysdael's late maturity, depicting a subject that he returned to repeatedly throughout his career – according to Stechow in some 280 paintings – that of a river landscape. 1664 was one of the most prolific years of Ruysdael's final decade, in which he produced the magnificent view of the Ruins of Egmond Abbey.1  The present work is executed with all the rich tones of the saturated greens, blues and reds and vigorous brushwork that typify Ruysdael's later work, in contrast to the lighter, tonal palette of the 1630s and early 1640s, for which he was famed during that decade. The effect here is to enhance the brighter clouds lit from behind, which are formed with free, swiftly-applied brushstrokes, as well as the highlights in the reflection picked up in the gently rippling water, itself defined by contrasting dashes of impasto and smoother, glassier passages. Ruysdael employs the cluster of trees as a repoussoir on the left side, balanced by the sails of the boats further along the bank, as the viewer's eye is led, seemingly by a line of ducks, either in the water or in flight, to the illuminated horizon and silhouette of a church. The two dated river landscapes of the same year in the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, possibly originally pendants, are most comparable to the present work in their diagonal compositions, tonality and execution.2 Stechow considered a work of identical size, depicting the Pelikuspoort at Utrecht, also exhibited from the collection of William Dickinson in 1862 and in the sale of his pictures in 1948 as the preceding lot 67, to be the probable pendant to this picture, although they are dated one year apart.3 1. Inv. no. MJA332, Musée Jeanne d'Aboville, La Fère. 2. Inv. nos os I-766 and os I-767; see Stechow 1975, pp. 129 and 152, cat. nos 382B and 534B. 3. See Stechow 1975, p. 142, cat. no. 470B.

Jul 5, 2017

Sotheby's

In the years around 1650, Ruysdael painted a small number of small-scale upright river and estuary scenes in calm weather that count among his finest achievements. Like the present outstanding example, they are of relatively simple composition, with a few small vessels and distant land. They are painted rapidly, with details of boats, clouds and the horizon line painted wet-in-wet, with no hesitation or revision. They are works of restraint and great subtlety, and of a uniformly gentle and tranquil mood. None of them is dated, but they can be reliably assigned to circa 1650 by comparison with generally larger-scale horizontal compositions painted in a similar way, some of which bear dates. Note on ProvenanceLady Helen Vincent, Viscountess D'Abernon, was a renowned society beauty and diarist, who was associated with The Souls, and believed to have been the model for the characters of Lady Thisbe Crowborough in Max Beerbohm's story Hilary Maltby and Stephen Braxton in Seven Men (1919) and for Lady Irene Silvester in Maurice Baring's story A Luncheon Party (1925). She sat to John Singer Sargent in 1904 during a protracted visit to Venice, and the resulting portrait, now in Birmingham, Alabama, is an extremely convincing testament to her remarkable beauty.  

Jul 9, 2015

Sotheby's

Jul 9, 2015

Sotheby's

Jun 23, 2015

Christie's

Salomon van Ruysdael (Naarden 1600-1670 Haarlem) A river landscape with peasants ferrying their livestock before a farmhouse signed and dated 'S.VR / 1632' (centre left) oil on panel 27.6 x 57.2 cm.