View of the IJ on a Stormy Day
Artist
Jacob van Ruisdael
(Dutch, about 1628 or 1629, died 1682)
Dateabout 1660
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionscanvas: 65.7 x 82.7 cm (25 7/8 x 32 9/16 in.)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineTheodore T. and Mary G. Ellis Collection
Terms
Object number1940.52
Label TextThe most celebrated of the Dutch landscape painters, Ruisdael also painted a number of impressive seascapes, all of which appear to date after 1656, when he had left his hometown of Haarlem and settled in Amsterdam, Holland's largest city. In this example he focused on the IJ, the arm of the Zuider Zee that forms the harbor of Amsterdam, just barely visible on the horizon at the left. Ruisdael's main interest was the force of nature indicated by the agitated water and ominous sky. In the movement of the clouds overhead, we can almost feel the wind blowing across the sea or anticipate a sudden shift in the pattern of light and shadow on the water. Like so many of his contemporaries, Ruisdael used his art to comment on nature's transitoriness, and in this case, the carefully placed sailing vessels, dwarfed against the vast sky, suggest man's subservience to the atmospheric elements.ProvenanceCollection of the Earl of Beverly; sold to Thomas Baring (1799–1873), 1851; bequeathed to his nephew, Thomas George Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook (1826–1904); bequeathed to Francis George Baring, 2nd Earl of Northbrook (1850–1929); sold to R. Langton Douglas, London, by 1927; sold to Theodore T. Ellis (1868–1934), Worcester, MA, 1927; bequeathed to his wife, Mary G. Ellis (d. 1940); bequeathed to the Worcester Art Museum as part of the Theodore T. and Mary G. Ellis Collection, 1940.On View
On view
