Follower of
Jacob van RUISDAEL
1628 - 1682, Dutch
Forest with Travelers
Oil on Canvas
39 by 32 inches framed
Ruisdael is regarded as the principal figure among Dutch landscape painters of the second half of the 17th century. His naturalistic compositions and style representing massive forms and his color range constituted a new direction towards a stricter sense of unity and simplification in landscape painting.
The forest is seen from a secure distance while the subject of the painting is the forest itself rather than a mere array of trees. The composition has a simple, lucid structure: in the center the dense screen of branches thins out towards the background, where the path leads out of the forest into the open. The paint is broadly applied over wide areas, the gradations of color flowing into one another. Man is seemingly insignificant in comparison to the grandeur of nature.
This work was painted in homage by a follower of Ruisdael during the first half of the 19th century while Ruisdael’s work was enjoying great popularity during the Romantic Age.
$20,800