Critical Archive of the Visual and Related Arts
Jacob van Ruisdael
Dutch; 17th-century
Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Rijksmuseum
59%
Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede. c1670. Oil on panel
The particularism of Dutch painting — its proclivity for showing objects as bounded units, self-contained wholes — can serve at times to dull and flatten space, which is a liability for landscapes. Not all of Ruisdael's paintings suffer from this, but here the two stacked ovoids of empty volume that fill up the left side of the picture appear a little weak and withered. The spit of land at right, as well, is a little tenuous, nor does the sky overpower in the way skies do in the best Dutch landscapes, especially those of Cuyp. But then there are moments of inspiration, like the orange accents in the shrubbery that cry out to the deliciously flat orange plane of the roof just behind them. (TFS, 2026)