Bosgezicht

Also titled Forest Scene

Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael (Haarlem, ca. –1682)

1653

Medium
panel, oil paint (paint)
Classification
painting
Dimensions
depth 10.6 cm
Museum
Rijksmuseum
Credit line
Dupper Wzn. Bequest, Dordrecht
Rights
Public Domain Mark, 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 Rijksmuseum

About this work

Until the 1650s, Ruisdael’s landscapes were marked by dense groves. He was partial to gnarled, distinctive trees. Here, we see pollard willows at the right, and oaks next to them. The left foreground features a blooming lilac lining the path on which a herdsman drives his cattle. Ruisdael created depth by placing in the right foreground a bare pollard willow, accentuated by the erratic shape of its trunk and colour of its bark.