Forest Scene

c. 1655

Jacob van Ruisdael

Artist, Dutch, c. 1628/1629 - 1682

A broken white and gray birch tree trunk has fallen across a rocky, shallow waterfall at the edge of a dense, deeply shadowed forest in this horizontal landscape painting. The narrow stream winds toward us from the forest to splash into a rocky pool that nearly spans the width of the painting along the bottom edge. The tree trunk angles from our right down into the pool, having lost most of its branches. Broken off near the base, the gnarled roots of the tree dig into a rocky outcropping along the right edge of the composition. Farther back and tiny in scale, two people walk along the stream. One person wears a black dress and white cap, and carries a basket, and the other person wears a light, brimmed hat, a ruby-red shirt, and dark pants. Under the trees beyond, four sheep graze in a meadow. The bushes, vegetation, and trees of the forest spring up beyond the sheep, painted with tones of sage, moss, olive, and dark pine green. A grove of trees to our right in the middle distance, including one white birch trunk, nearly reaches the top edge of the canvas. Steel-gray bottomed clouds with white, fluffy tops create a diagonal line across the tree tops. A wedge of pale blue sky is exposed in the upper left corner. A few dark birds fly high in the sky. The artist signed the painting in the lower right, “J v Ruisdael.”

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Jacob van Ruisdael represents the pinnacle of seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painting. This great artist, the son of a painter and the nephew of Salomon van Ruysdael (see NGA 2007.116.1), began his career in Haarlem but moved to Amsterdam in about 1656. His long and productive career yielded a wide variety of landscape scenes that reflect Ruisdael’s vision of the grandeur and powerful forces of nature.

His most characteristic paintings include massive trees that tower above a rocky countryside, in which human figures seem dwarfed by the elements of nature. The scale and solemn dignity of Forest Scene make it one of Ruisdael’s masterpieces. The man and woman walking along a path near some grazing sheep in the middle distance are insignificant in comparison to the broad waterfall, the massive rocks, and the huge fallen birch tree in the foreground. The somber mood is reinforced by ominous clouds and by the dark green of the grass and foliage. Trees with twisted roots survive precariously on rocky outcroppings. The broken trees in the foreground are important not only as compositional devices but also as symbolic reminders of the transience of life and the inevitability of death.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 105.5 x 123.4 cm (41 9/16 x 48 9/16 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.9.80

More About this Artwork

Article:  Portraits of Trees, a Favorite Subject of Artists

Many artists have painted, photographed, and drawn nature’s magnificent sculptures.

Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: Forest Scene, c. 1655

This horizontal painting shows a group of eight light-skinned musicians and onlookers gathered closely around a rectangular, carpet-covered table. The front edge of the table runs parallel to the bottom edge of the painting, and seems close to us. Shown from about the waist up, the men and women’s vivid lapis-blue, coral-red, buttercup-yellow, lilac-purple, and moss-green garments fall in crisp folds. Bright reflections on the fabric suggest a satin-like material. Two women wear feathers in their hair and one man’s hat is plumed. One man, wearing crimson red and black, sits with his back to us to our left on the near side of the table. He holds the neck of a bass viol, about the size of a cello, with his left hand, and points to pages of an open music book with the bow in his right hand. The other people cluster on the far side of the table. A man to the left plays a violin; a woman at the center plays a guitar-sized bandora, and a woman to our right plays a lute. The musicians, along with a man who leans over the table from between the two women, look down at the music books. A young man behind the woman at the center holds up a glass of pale liquid with his right hand as he touches his left forefinger to his smiling lips. A man and woman stand close together in the background to our right, in the top right corner of the canvas.

Scholarly Series:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Probably owned by Francis Nathaniel, 2nd marquess Conyngham [1797-1876], Mount Charles, County Donegal, and Minster Abbey, Kent.[1] Sir Hugh Hume-Campbell, 7th bart. [1812-1894], Marchmont House, Borders, Scotland, by 1857;[2] (his estate sale, Christie, Manson, & Woods, London, 16 June 1894, no. 48); (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London); sold 1894 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] The only source of information concerning the picture's whereabouts prior to 1857 is Hofstede de Groot, whose listing of the painting is extremely confusing (Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, trans. Edward G. Hawke, 8 vols., London, 1907-1927: 4(1912):92, no. 285, possibly also 119, no. 367, 134, no. 418, 203, no. 643c). It seems that any or all of his four entries (nos. 285, 367, 418, and 643c) may contain information that relates to the Forest Scene, but these entries also contain additional and contradictory provenance listings, which must refer to at least one other painting. It nonetheless seems likely that before the Forest Scene was acquired by Sir Hugh Hume Campbell, it was indeed owned by a member of the Conyngham family of Ireland, most probably the 2nd marquess, but also possibly his father, Henry, 3rd baron and 1st marquess Conyngham (1766-1832).
[2] Gustav Friedrich Waagen, _Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures and Illuminated Mss., 3 vols., London, 1854-1857, supplement: 441-442.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1866

  • British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom, London, 1866, no. 59 (possibly also 1855, no. 54, and 1857, no. 9).[1]

1877

  • Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of the British School. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1877, no. 199.

Bibliography

1854

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss.. 3 vols. Translated by Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake. London, 1854: supplement 441.

1855

  • British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom. Catalogue of pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French and English masters with which the proprietors have favoured the Institution. Exh. cat. British Institution. London, 1855: possibly no. 54, as Landscape.

1857

  • Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of more than Forty Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Mss., &c.&c., visited in 1854 and 1856, ..., forming a supplemental volume to the "Treasures of Art in Great Britain." London, 1857: 441.

  • British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom. Catalogue of pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French and English masters with which the proprietors have favoured the Institution. Exh. cat. British Institution. London, 1857: possibly no. 9, as Landscape and Figures.

1866

  • British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom. Catalogue of pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, Franch, and English masters. Exh. cat. British Institution. London, 1866: no. 59, as Rocky Landscape with Waterfall.

1877

  • Royal Academy of Arts. Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of the British School. Winter Exhibition. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1877: no. 199.

1885

  • Catalogue of Paintings Forming the Collection of P.A.B. Widener, Ashbourne, near Philadelphia. 2 vols. Paris, 1885-1900: 2(1900):274.

1907

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907-1928: 4(1911):87, no. 285 (possibly also 111, no. 367, 125, no. 418, 192, no. 643c).

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. 8 vols. Translated by Edward G. Hawke. London, 1907-1927: 4(1912):92, no. 285 (possibly also 119, no. 367, 134, no. 418, 203, no. 643c).

1913

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis, and Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Pictures in the collection of P. A. B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: Early German, Dutch & Flemish Schools. Philadelphia, 1913: unpaginated, repro.

1923

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro.

1928

  • Rosenberg, Jakob. Jacob van Ruisdael. Berlin, 1928: 87, no. 241.

1930

  • Simon, Kurt Erich. Jacob van Ruisdael: eine Darstellung seiner Entwicklung. Berlin, 1930: 62, pl. 8.

1931

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 94, repro.

1935

  • Tietze, Hans. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935: 338, no. 192.

1939

  • Tietze, Hans. Masterpieces of European Painting in America. New York, 1939: no. 192.

1942

  • National Gallery of Art. Works of art from the Widener collection. Washington, 1942: 6.

1948

  • National Gallery of Art. Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. Washington, 1948: 58, repro.

1952

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 108, color repro.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 143.

1959

  • National Gallery of Art. Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. Reprint. Washington, DC, 1959: 58, repro.

1960

  • Baird, Thomas P. Dutch Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art 7. Washington, 1960: 18, color repro.

  • The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 25.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 194-195, no. 676, repro.

1965

  • National Gallery of Art. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. Washington, 1965: 119.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1: 252, color repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 106, repro.

  • Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 140, color repro.

1975

  • National Gallery of Art. European paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Washington, 1975: 316, repro.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 292-293, no. 391, color repro.

1979

  • Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 77, pl. 64.

1981

  • Schmidt, Winfried. Studien zur Landschaftskunst Jacob van Ruisdaels: Frühwerke und Wanderjahre. Hildesheim, 1981: 90.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 292, no. 384, color repro.

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1984: 36-37, color repro.

  • Britsch, Ralph A., and Todd A. Britsch. The arts in Western culture. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1984: 258, fig. 11-16.

1985

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, 1985: 363, repro.

1986

  • Sutton, Peter C. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Washington and Grand Rapids, 1986: 305.

1991

  • Walford, E. John. Jacob van Ruisdael and the Perception of Landscape. New Haven, 1991: 102-104, 117, 144, repro.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 136, color repro.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1995: 339-343, color repro. 341.

  • Katz, Elizabeth L., E. Louis Lankford, and Janice D. Plank. Themes and foundations of art. Minneapolis, 1995: 452, fig. 8-101.

2001

  • Slive, Seymour. Jacob van Ruisdael: A Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, Drawings and Etchings. New Haven, 2001: 243-244, no. 295.

2002

  • Hunt, John Dixon. The picturesque garden in Europe. New York, 2002: 17, fig. 13.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 204-205, no. 162, color repro.

  • Allen, Eva J. A Vision of Nature: The Landscapes of Philip Koch: Retrospective, 1971-2004. Exh. cat. University of Maryland University College, Adelphi, 2004: 14-15, fig. 6.

2005

  • Slive, Seymour. Jacob van Ruisdael: Master of Landscape. Exh. cat. Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Royal Academy of Arts, London. London, 2005: no. 32, 108, 109 repro.

2006

  • Schwartz, Sanford. "White Secrets." New York Review of Books (February 9, 2006): 8.

2012

  • Tummers, Anna. The Eye of the Connoisseur: Authenticating Paintings by Rembrandt and His Contemporaries. Amsterdam, 2012: 101, color fig. 46.

2020

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Clouds, ice, and Bounty: The Lee and Juliet Folger Collection of Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2020: 21, 132, fig. 1, 133.

Inscriptions

lower right: J v Ruisdael (JvR in ligature)

Wikidata ID

Q20177382

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