Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 12

Salomon van Ruysdael
A Dune Landscape with Figures Resting and a Couple on Horseback, a View of Nijme

c. 1642-43

About the Item

"A Dune Landscape with Figures Resting and a Couple on Horseback, a View of Nijmegen Cathedral Beyond" is a painting by Dutch Old Master painter Salomon van Ruysdael. The painting is unsigned. The framed piece measures 37 1/2 x 54 1/4 x 1 3/4 in. Born in Naarden where his father, Jacob Jansz de Goyer was a moderately wealthy cabinetmaker, Salomon van Ruysdael initially used the name ‘de Goyer’ but soon followed the example of his eldest brother and adopted ‘Ruysdael’ from the castle of Ruijschdaal in Gooiland, which may once have been a family possession. Shortly after his father’s death, Salomon and his brother, Isaack van Ruysdael (1599-1677), a painter, frame maker, and dealer, moved to Haarlem, where Salomon entered the Guild of St Luke in 1623 and largely painted scenes of the surrounding countryside. By 1640, Salomon distanced himself from the tonal aesthetic that had largely dominated landscape pictures of the previous decade. Instead, he adopted a more varied and brighter palette that can be seen as part of a wider movement in landscape painting whereupon the impulse to paint the more mundane features of the Dutch environment in a relatively uncomplicated manner was supplanted by a desire to imbue the landscape with a new sense of grandeur and refinement. Salomon did not, for example, intend cloud structures to be simply beautiful features or atmospheric elements that augment the ‘feeling’ of the picture. Instead, he looked to the energy and drama of the sky to suggest familiar poetic or scriptural metaphors vis a vis any number of weather anomalies — natural world reminders of God’s creative power, his benevolence, and his goodness visible from the top of the dunes, from the lands reclaimed from the sea, and from the sea conquered with their mighty ships. “A Dune with Figures Resting” is a beautifully orchestrated demonstration of that principle carried on the strength of its brilliant staging of light and shadow in creating drama and energy. It is the beau idéal that collectors of seventeenth-century Dutch landscapes value most, illustrated in this case by a dramatic cloud-driven sky that conveys the essential nature of a blustery day, a rising sandy wedge of land that provides a gently sloping diagonal to a lowered horizon on the left gloriously capped by a silvery band of distanced water, and a landscape populated by figures that have come for the bracing air and together, create a kind of euphoric spectacle of life and living; people admiring the scene just as Salomon van Ruysdael wanted us to admire the picture. It is all pitched and brought to dynamic balance by those wind-driven darkened cumulus clouds that echo and drive the clustered shape of the trees skyward; an effect counter-balanced by patches of white clouds that sort of speak to the strongly lit area that irradiates and transfigures the landscape at mid-ground. The overall effect is a radiant one, and it is clear, Salomon took the advice given by Karel van Mander to painters in 1604 that, “above all do not forget to put small figures under tall trees. . . Make the countryside, the town, and the water full of activity, the houses inhabited, and the roads traveled.” “A Dune with Figures Resting” is a picture full of positivism, an embodiment of a benevolent equilibrium of sea and land and air and water – all experienced by people, whether peasant or of a more leisurely class — a show of prosperity and harmony. Provenance: Sale: Monsieur J.B., Paris, Drouot, 23 March 1931, No. 13, repr. With Georges Wildenstein, Paris Confiscated from the above by Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, 8 February 1941 and allocated for the Goering Collection (inv. G 414), transferred the Jeu de Paume, 15 January 1943, and stored at Berchtesgaden (inv. 564) Munich, Collecting Point, Recuperation, 1947, No. 5609 Repatriated to the French government, 27 March 1946, and restituted to the Wildenstein family, 21 March 1947 Wildenstein & Co., Buenos Aires Collection Raul Lamuraglia, Buenos Aires Sale: Christie's New York, 31 May 1991, Important Old Master Paintings, No. 30A, repr. in colour Private Collection, New York Private Collection, California, by descent Exhibition: Exh. De El Greco a Tiepolo, Museo Nacionales de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, 1964, No. 110, repr. Literature: W. Stechow, Salomon van Ruysdael, 1975, p. 107, no. 258
  • Creator:
    Salomon van Ruysdael (1602 - 1670, Dutch)
  • Creation Year:
    c. 1642-43
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 26.5 in (67.31 cm)Width: 41.5 in (105.41 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
    1640-1649
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Palm Desert, CA
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 399571stDibs: LU9311591422
More From This SellerView All
  • River Landscape with a Windmill and Chapel
    By Jan Josefsz Van Goyen
    Located in Palm Desert, CA
    "River Landscape with a Windmill and Chapel" is a painting by Dutch Old Master Painter, Jan van Goyen. There are traces of a signature on the bow of the boat...
    Category

    1640s Old Masters Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Panel, Oil

  • California Landscape
    By William Wendt
    Located in Palm Desert, CA
    "California Landscape" is a painting by California Impressionist William Wendt. The painting is signed lower left, "William Wendt 1917". The frame...
    Category

    1910s American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Scouting
    By Frank Tenney Johnson
    Located in Palm Desert, CA
    "Scouting" is an oil on canvas painting by Frank Tenney Johnson. The framed piece measures 23 3/4 x 27 3/4 x 3 1/4 inches. Johnson was well-known for his work of the American west, particularly for his portrayal of cowboys at night, lit by moonlight. Johnson utilized knives and fingers when painting, so his work is recognizable for its distinctive marks. Provenance: Biltmore Galleries, Scottsdale...
    Category

    Early 20th Century American Realist Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Apaches
    By Olaf Wieghorst
    Located in Palm Desert, CA
    "Apaches" is an oil on canvas painting by Olaf Wieghorst. The painting is signed on the lower left, "O-Wieghorst". The framed piece measures 25 1/2 x 29 3/4 x 2 in. “When the time comes for me to put away my palette and unsaddle my pony for the last time, I hope that my canvases will in some small measure add to the historical recording of an era, the cowboy, and the great American West.” ~ Olaf Wieghorst Wieghorst worked with the mounted patrol of the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Cavalry (1920-1922) with occasional interludes as a wrangler on ranches in the western states. Wherever he went, he sketched and painted the Western culture he loved, often selling his work as calendar and magazine illustrations. His work appeared in Zane Grey...
    Category

    Early 20th Century American Realist Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Navajos at Rest
    By Edgar Payne
    Located in Palm Desert, CA
    "Navajos at Rest" is an oil on canvas painting by Edgar Alwin Payne. The painting is signed at the lower right, "Edgar Payne". The framed piece measures 25 1/4...
    Category

    Early 20th Century Tonalist Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Coastal Town on the Riviera
    By Winston Churchill
    Located in Palm Desert, CA
    "Coastal Town on the Riviera" is an oil on canvas on paperboard work made by Winston Churchill circa 1925. The work is double-sided, with a portrait on the reverse. The artwork size ...
    Category

    Early 20th Century Impressionist Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Cardboard, Oil

You May Also Like
  • 19th Century By Giustino Menescardi Ascent to Calvary Oil on Canvas
    Located in Milano, Lombardia
    Giustino Menescardi (Milan, c. 1720 - Venice, after 1779) Ascent of Calvary Oil on canvas, cm. 47 x 36 - with frame cm. 57x43 Shaped and gilded wooden cassetta frame Publications: Bozzetti, modelletti, sketches: dalla collezione di Giorgio Baratti...
    Category

    Early 18th Century Old Masters Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Cotton Canvas, Canvas, Oil

  • 17th Century by Simone Cantarini Adoration of The Magi Painting Oil on Canvas
    Located in Milano, Lombardia
    Simone Cantarini (Pesaro 1612 - Verona 1648) Adoration of the Magi Oil on paper applied to canvas, cm. 16,5 x 24 – with frame cm. 22 x 29 Antique sh...
    Category

    Early 17th Century Old Masters Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Cotton Canvas, Oil

  • REGATTA IN THE GULF -English School Italian Sealing boat Oil on canvas Painting
    By John Stevens
    Located in Napoli, IT
    Regatta in the gulf - John Stevens Italia 2006 - Oil on canvas cm.40x80. Using thin washes of oil paint, John Stevens slowly builds up his highly detailed paintings of scenes of nava...
    Category

    Early 2000s Old Masters Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Canvas

  • 16th Century by Cristofano Roncalli Saint Catherine of Siena Oil on Canvas
    Located in Milano, Lombardia
    Cristofano Roncalli (Pomarance 1552 - Rome 1626) Saint Catherine of Siena chooses the crown of thorns oil on wood, cm. 101,5x59.5 - with frame cm. 120x76 Shaped, carved and sculpted wooden cassetta frame, partly gilded and partly ebonized wood Expertise: Marco Ciampolini The marvellous scene that opens before our eyes is that of Christ's apparition to Saint Catherine of Siena; she must choose between a golden crown, the symbol of earthly royalty, and a crown of thorns, the symbol of virtuous Christian sacrifice. Catherine does not hesitate to choose the crown of thorns, her life in imitation of...
    Category

    16th Century Old Masters Landscape Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Cotton Canvas, Oil

  • 18th Century sporting horse portrait oil painting of a race horse and groom
    By Francis Sartorius
    Located in Nr Broadway, Worcestershire
    Francis Sartorius British, (1734-1804) Bay Hunter & Groom Oil on canvas, signed Image size: 24.25 inches x 29.25 inches Size including frame: 32 inches x 37 inches A wonderful spor...
    Category

    18th Century Old Masters Animal Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Canvas

  • HUGE 17thC ITALIAN OLD MASTER OIL PAINTING - KING & COURT FIGURES ROMAN BUILDING
    Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
    Artist/ School: Italian School, 17th century. Title: A King and Queen before court figures, amidst a classical landscape with Roman columns. Medium: oil painting on canvas, framed ...
    Category

    17th Century Old Masters Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Canvas

Recently Viewed

View All