Lot 2048 D α

“He painted both native and foreign landscapes, but was especially fond of those in which he could depict water flowing over rocks and boulders, rushing into valleys with a tumultuous sound (…) He could paint water falling and foaming so naturally and clearly that it appeared to be real,” wrote Arnold Houbraken of Jakob van Ruisdael's landscapes. The striking realism of Ruisdael's landscapes grants the viewer a synaesthetic experience in which they not only see nature before them, but can almost hear its sounds and feel as if they are immersed within it. The praise which Ruisdael received from the 18th century art historian Houbraken not only illustrates his high standing within the history of Dutch landscape painting; it also shows the importance of waterfalls within his oeuvre - they are the most frequently occurring motif within the artist's works (Slive, op. cit., p. 152).
This large-format landscape exemplifies what Houbraken so admired in Ruisdael's works. The artist depicts the rushing torrent flowing straight towards the viewer, breaking over the stones and pebbles on its path. The castle on a hill in the far distance of the work illustrates how Ruisdael was able to compose his landscapes so convincingly, yet economically. The castle is placed in the centre of the image in the background, along the same axis as the stream in the foreground, thus creating a link between the furthest and nearest points within the composition and making the vastness of the landscape seem more tangible.
Jakob van Ruisdael began to paint landscapes with waterfalls in the late 1650s, probably inspired by Allart van Everdingen, who was successful with Scandinavian landscapes in Amsterdam. This also explains why this landscape was long considered to be a work by Allart van Everdingen.