Jacob van Ruisdael, 'Vessels in a Fresh Breeze', probably about 1660-5
About the work
Overview
Jacob van Ruisdael painted many landscapes, but few marine pictures; the ones he did make are simply views of the sea off the coast of Holland, with small sailing vessels usually in a wind varying from fresh to gale force.
In this painting a small sailing vessel, probably a kaag (an inshore ferry boat) is driven before a fresh breeze under a vast, stormy sky, with a couple of passengers bundled up against the cold. A patch of blue sky suggests that the storm is passing, but it appears that the little boat will be under the clouds for a while as it races along keeping up with them. The vessel’s honey-coloured sails soften the starkness of the scene, making it seem an everyday journey that travellers by sea would be used to. The white sails of the boats speeding away from us give a sense of exhilaration rather than of bleakness or danger.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Vessels in a Fresh Breeze
- Artist
- Jacob van Ruisdael
- Artist dates
- 1628/9? - 1682
- Date made
- probably about 1660-5
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 44.5 × 54.6 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed
- Acquisition credit
- Salting Bequest, 1910
- Inventory number
- NG2567
- Location
- Room 23
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 20th-century Replica Frame
Provenance
Sold by Gritten in 1841 and in the collection of William Theobald by 1842; William Theobald sale, London, 10 May 1851 (lot 62), bought by Gritten (71 gns). In the collection of Revd Frederic Leicester by 1853, when it was exhibited at the BI; Revd Frederic Leicester sale, London, 18–19 May 1860 (lot 153), bought in (155 gns). Albert Levy sale, London, 31 March–6 April 1876 (lot 363), bought by George Salting (290 gns); Salting Bequest, 1910.
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
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1830
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters: In Which is Included a Short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures […], vol. 2, London 1830
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1851Christie, Manson & Woods, Catalogue of the Very Choice Collection of Pictures, of the Highest Class: The Property of William Theobald Esq., Deceased, London, 10 May 1851
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1853British Institution, Catalogue of Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French and English Masters (exh. cat. British Institution, 1853), London 1853
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1876Christie, Manson & Woods, Catalogue of the Collection of Ancient & Modern Pictures and Watercolour Drawings, of Albert Levy Esq., London, 31 March 1876 - 6 April 1876
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1907C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols, London 1907
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1960Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
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1979D. Cordingly, Painters of the Sea: A Survey of Dutch and English Paintings from British Collections (exh. cat. Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, 5 May - 29 July 1979), Brighton 1979
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1982C. Thompson, Look Alike: Themes and Variations in Art (exh. cat. Scottish National Gallery, 24 July - 24 October 1982), Edinburgh 1982
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1991Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2001S. Slive, Jacob Van Ruisdael: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, Drawings and Etchings, New Haven 2001
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2005S. Slive, Jacob van Ruisdael: Master of Landscape (exh. cat. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 26 June - 18 September 2005; Philadelphia Museum of Art, 23 October 2005 - 5 February 2006; Royal Academy of Arts, 25 February - 4 June 2006), New Haven 2005
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2008J. Gaschke, Turmoil and Tranquillity: The Sea through the Eyes of Dutch and Flemish Masters, 1550-1700 (exh. cat. National Maritime Museum, 20 June 2008 - 11 January 2009), London 2008
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
More works by Jacob van Ruisdael
(Showing 6 of 21 works)
In the seventeenth century, the linen bleaching fields of Haarlem were considered to be the best in Europe. Linen was an important fabric and to fetch the highest prices its natural beige colour needed to be bleached white. The flat fields and ready water supply in the rivers and canals around Ha...
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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...
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There is a feeling of melancholy about this composition. The sky is dark and oppressive, and the background is dominated by shadowy cliffs. In the right foreground, the fallen birch tree – a common device to help give an impression of depth to a view – hints at the destructive power of nature. Th...
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This, one of van Ruisdael’s most famous paintings, is a bigger version of his An Extensive Landscape with Ruins, also in the National Gallery’s collection. This sizeable picture was almost certainly painted on commission and was designed to hang in a very large room. Its size is matched by the se...
Heavy, rain-dark clouds loom over a rugged landscape of scrubby trees, crags and three pines dramatically silhouetted against the sky. Right in the centre of the picture, a river emerges black and mirror-like from a fold in the hills, transforming into a seething cauldron as it tips over a rock l...
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There’s an air of stillness in this large painting that is unusual in Jacob van Ruisdael’s work. The clouds hang as if suspended over the forest and the leaves of trees – often restless in his other pictures – are quiet, though by no means lifeless. Reflections tremble a little in the water, and...
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This landscape was, for a long time, thought to be by a follower of Jacob van Ruisdael, but both the landscape and the figures are now considered to be van Ruisdael’s work.The identification was probably made difficult by the layers of old varnish that obscure the work, but it’s still possible to...
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A rutted road leads into a wood and winds round to the right and over a rise to disappear. This is an often repeated theme in Jacob van Ruisdael’s early paintings – scenes of the Dutch countryside designed to please busy city dwellers wanting a moment of tranquillity in the home, or a reminder of...
This painting, for some time thought to be by an unknown artist, is now considered to be by Jacob van Ruisdael, the leading Dutch landscape painter of the seventeenth century. The rocky hillside lit with patches of sunlight from the broken, scudding clouds overhead is typical of van Ruisdael’s wo...
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Jacob van Ruisdael was the foremost seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painter, and even paved the way for the rural scenes Thomas Gainsborough painted in England in the eighteenth century. Gainsborough admired and made copies of van Ruisdael’s work, but rather than the pastoral views that appea...
A mountain top shrouded in mist, a bubbling torrent of water tumbling headlong down a rocky hillside, a lone tree piercing the clouds – this was one of the favourite themes of the great Dutch landscape artist Jacob van Ruisdael during the middle of the seventeenth century. Inspired by drawings ma...
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The strong wind blowing towards us in this picture is almost tangible. Water roars and tumbles over bare rocks that jut up through the foam. Clouds pile high and rush overhead, echoing the shape of the tossing trees below before they swirl and reform to make room for more, perhaps bringing gusts...
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The tall chimneys of the house hidden among the trees seem the most stable things in van Ruisdael’s picture, holding on to the steep hillside that slides down towards the river. The slender trunks of the birch trees on the right are twisted and crooked, and the leaves turning yellow are ready to...
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A grey, turbulent sky dominates the scene, but our eye is also caught by a patch of light in the fields: the sun has broken through a crack in the clouds.This sense of fast-changing light brings the whole landscape to life, injecting movement into what otherwise might have been a static scene. Th...
The mood in this painting is sombre, even sinister. It’s twilight, with the sky cloudy but – unusual in Jacob van Ruisdael’s landscapes – unmoving. The white walls of the ruins on the steep bank on the right almost give the impression that light is shining from them. The distant sand dunes look l...
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The tide is ebbing at Egmond-aan-Zee, leaving a pattern of swirls in the still-wet sand. You can sense the outward sweep and undertow of the tide before the little waves tumble back towards the shore.The people lingering on the beach aren't fishermen, like the silhouetted figures near the boats....
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Jacob van Ruisdael’s washerwomen are strong and sturdy. One stands in the river up to her ankles and raises a stick to beat the linen she’s washing, while her companion stoops to rinse a cloth. Behind them a heap of dirty washing awaits the attention of their brawny arms. Their dog lifts his head...
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The wind seems to chase the clouds across this painting, letting through a fitful sun to light up the tumbling water for one moment. In another it will be gone, falling instead on the sheep on the steep hillside across the valley, perhaps, or the distant windmill and church steeple beyond. The ma...
Follower of Jacob van Ruisdael
This painting is a copy of Jacob van Ruisdael’s original, which is in a private collection in Canada. Made by an unknown follower, it shares the original’s sense of space and airiness, with a wide view past the dense trees and bushes on the left.Crossing the barrier of dead tree trunks across the...
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Imitator of Jacob van Ruisdael
This picture was painted by a seventeenth-century Dutch imitator of Jacob van Ruisdael and is possibly an early work by the artist’s follower Johan van Kessel. It may be based on a lost work by van Ruisdael showing Bentheim Castle, which is on the border between Germany and the Netherlands, altho...
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You've viewed 6 of 21 works