Cottage at the Top of a Hill

The renowned landscape artist Jacob van Ruisdael could have been called a portrait painter of trees, as evidenced by the gnarled, ancient example at the center of this dramatic, detailed etching. Eschewing grand, Italianate landscapes for the minutia of the Dutch Republic, Ruisdael was a trendsetter in numerous landscape genres, including woodland, river, waterfall, beach, and winter scenes. In addition to fellow Dutch artists, he also influenced contemporaries in Germany such as Jonas Umbach, and artists in later centuries, when the German Romantics rediscovered the mutable, wizened outdoors.