Landscape with Sluice Gate
Artist: Jacob van Ruisdael (Dutch, 1628-1682)
Date: 1665-1670
Dimensions:
41 x 34 7/16 in. (104 x 87.5 cm)
Medium: oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1978.68
Label Text:This scene by the most versatile and expressive Dutch landscape artist of the 17th century is a study in contrasts. The river is quiet with the sluice gate closed, but peasants lay down bundles of willow branches to reinforce the riverbed against the rush of water that will come when the sluice gate reopens. On the bank, a hunter and his spirited dogs search for their fallen game. People are rare in Jacob van Ruisdael’s work, and even these figures are dwarfed by the enormity of the landscape around them. The trees tower far over the people’s heads, their height emphasized by the vertical format of the canvas, which is unusual in landscape painting.
Not on view
In Collection(s)