Wooded Dunes
Wooded Dunes, also known as Dune Landscape, Peasant Cottage in a Landscape, Wooded Dunes and Cottage in a Grove is a 1646 oil on panel painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Jacob van Ruisdael. It is in the collection of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.[1]
The painting shows a landscape of small dunes, with a peasant on the side of the road, with his bundle and stick beside him. To the left is a pool; on one bank stands a workman conversing with two seated figures; on the opposite bank are trees. There is little green in the foliage, which has been much worked on with the mahl-stick. The foreground seems to be unfinished.[2] [3]
This work is one of the earliest known Ruisdaels. He was only a teenager when he created it. The dimensions are remarkably large for a starting artist: 105 x 163 cm. [1] It is signed and dated 1646. It is unknown who painted the figures.[2] Art historian Seymour Slive doubts the staffage is of the hand of Ruisdael's father, Isaack van Ruisdael.[1]
The painting is known by various names. The painting is called Dune Landscape in Slive's 2001 catalogue raisonné of Ruisdael, catalogue number 615.[4] The painting is called Wooded Dunes in Hofstede de Groot's 1911 catalogue raisonné, catalogue number 895.[2] The Hermitage calls it Peasant Cottage in a Landscape on their website, inventory number 939.[5] Kuznetsov calls it Cottage in a Grove in his book about Russian Ruisdaels.[6] Finally, Irina Sokolova, curator at the Hermitage, called it Small House in a Grove in her book.[7]
A smaller version, also dated 1646, is in het Goeverneurshuis in Paramaribo, Suriname. That one is catalogue number 610 in Slive's 2001 catalogue raisonné.[4]
References
Notes
- Slive & Hoetink 1981, p. 32.
- Hofstede de Groot 1911, p. 275.
- Catalog 895, page 275 in Hofstede de Groot on archive.org
- Slive 2001, p. 433.
- "Peasant Cottage in a Landscape". Hermitage Museum. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
- Kuznetsov 1983.
- Sokolova 1988, p. 63.
Bibliography
- Cat. no. 895, page 275, Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis (1911). Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten Holländischen Mahler des XVII. Jahrhunderts [A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century] (in German). 4. Esslingen, Germany: Paul Neff. OCLC 2923803.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Kuznetsov, Yuri (1983). Jacob van Ruisdael. Masters of World Painting. Leningrad: Aurora Art Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8109-2280-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Slive, Seymour; Hoetink, Hendrik Richard (1981). Jacob van Ruisdael (Dutch ed.). Amsterdam: Meulenhoff/Landshoff. ISBN 978-90-290-8471-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Slive, Seymour (2001). Jacob van Ruisdael: a Complete Catalogue of his Paintings, Drawings, and Etchings. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-08972-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Sokolova, Irina (1988). "Dutch paintings of the Seventeenth Century". In Howard, Kathleen (ed.). Dutch and Flemish Paintings from the Hermitage. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-87099-509-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)