Forest Scene

Dutch Golden Age, c. 1655

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.”
Artist
Dutch Golden Age
Date
c. 1655
Type
Painting
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
105.5 × 123.4 cm
Collection
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Licence
Public domain, CC0

Image description

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.”

Dutch Golden Age