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A Cottage and a Hayrick by a River

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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This is an early work by Jacob van Ruisdael, probably made when he was only about 20 years old, around the time that he qualified as an artist and joined the painters’ guild in his home town of Haarlem. He has built the composition around a stand of scrubby trees and a farmhouse on the edge of a river – and made it all the more artistically challenging by choosing a backlit scene. While this increases the visual impact of the trees against a bright sky, it required him to evoke the effects of light filtering through them.

If you look closely at the brushwork here, you can see the techniques that van Ruisdael used to create a convincing effect. He has built up an impression of the myriad colours of the leaves with thousands of tiny dabs and smudges of different greens, browns and yellows, as well as a few tiny flecks of white.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

A Cottage and a Hayrick by a River

Date

about 1646-50

Medium

Oil on oak

Measurements

H 26 x W 33.4 cm

Accession number

NG2565

Acquisition method

Salting Bequest, 1910

Work type

Painting

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The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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