Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00009962About the Artwork
Jacob van Ruisdael, one of the most eminent Dutch landscape painters, is revered for his brooding woodland compositions. With much of this painting's composition dedicated to nature alone, an underlying sense of sublimity is heightened by Ruisdael through the inclusion of several diminutive figures. A mother and child trudge through a weathered path in the foreground, their pet dog following closely at their side, while a lone traveler approaches from the foliage ahead of them. This work is an excellent representation of the artist's later period, speaking to both his preoccupation with meticulous detail and the transitory relationship between humans and nature.
Inscriptions
Signed lower left: "JvRuisdael [JvR in monogram]"
Provenance
-1754: Johann Matthias de Neufville Gontrad [1754-1794], Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, upon his death, by inheritance to his wife 1754-1817: Wife of Johann Matthias de Neufville Gontrad, by gift or sold to the Stadelsches Kunstinstitut, 1817 1817-possibly 1900: Stadelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt am Main (no. 270 in the catalogue of 1900) 1921: August Berg (Portland, Oregon), 1921 Frederick Mont [1894-1994], New York, NY, probably sold to Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., 1963: Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., [1909-1988], New York, NY, sold through Frederick Mont, New York, NY, to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1963. 1963-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
Year in Review (1964). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 8, 1964-January 31, 1965). Juxtapositions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (September 11-October 10, 1965). Dutch Art and Life in the Seventeenth Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 10-September 2, 1973).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Jacob van Ruisdael (Dutch, 1628/29–1682)
- Date
- 1660s
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 73 x 81.5 x 11 cm (28 3/4 x 32 1/16 x 4 5/16 in.); Unframed: 51.6 x 59.4 cm (20 5/16 x 23 3/8 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
- Accession no.
- 1963.575
More by Jacob van Ruisdael in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00009962
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