Castle on a River
Salomon van Ruysdael (Dutch, 1602–1670)
1644
- Medium
- oil on wood
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Framed: 57 x 79 x 5.5 cm (22 7/16 x 31 1/8 x 2 3/16 in.); Unframed: 39.3 x 60.5 cm (15 1/2 x 23 13/16 in.)
- Culture
- Netherlands
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Salomon van Ruysdael, the uncle of Jacob van Ruisdael, here represents a free interpretation of the Castle Loevenstein. In addition to its picturesque qualities, the castle had great political and cultural importance as the official state prison and a key fort in the southern Netherlands. Painted just before the Dutch won independence from Spain in 1648, the painting likely expressed nationalist pride for its owner.