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Provenance: Literature: Salomon van Ruysdael was born in Naarden around 1600-1602. His earliest known dated painting is the View of the Horse Market at Valkenburg from 1626. 1. Merely two years later, his landscapes were praised by the chronicler Samuel van Ampzing in his Description and Praise of the town of Haarlem. It is unknown with whom the artist trained, but his early works show the influence of Esaias van de Velde who worked in Haarlem from 1609 to 1618. Alongside Pieter Molijn, Jan van Goyen, Pieter van Santvoort and others, van Ruysdael played an important role in establishing the tonal dune landscape that is often considered to be one of the greatest achievements in seventeenth century Dutch painting. The present work was executed during a unique time in the history of Dutch painting when artists began to develop a more naturalistic depiction of nature. The composition of Dune landscape with farmers, as well as the color palette and receding diagonals are typical features of works by van Ruysdael from the late 1620s. Many of the paintings from this period reflect the artist’s rich observation and unembellished portrayal of the sandy, undulating terrain bordering Haarlem. During the seventeenth century, an interest in humble subject matter and the carefree simplicity of rustic life was popular among upper-class art collectors. Literature of the time frequently acknowledged the positive aspect of leisure as a recuperative interlude between periods of productivity. 3. In a poem accompanying a series of landscape prints with farmers and peasants from 1614, an obscure seventeenth century poet, G. Ryckius, wrote: “Most happy is he and truly blessed is the one who may spend his years free of burgher cares, so long as he lives securely under the thatched roof of his hut; his spirit does not become entangled by complications, his will does not wrestle in a heart filled with doubt, but remains happy, content with the possessions of his fathers…most happy is he and in the highest measure blessed.” 4. Also popular among art collectors was the monochromatic, or tonal, style which proliferated Dutch painting during the 1620s–50s. Traditionally, this trend was attributed exclusively to changes in taste. However, scholars have recently set forth more thoroughly researched explanations. John Michael Montias related the rise in popularity of tonal painting to artists’ quest to lower their production costs, while also satisfying new market demands. 5. Jonathan Israel expanded this theory and linked the monochromatic phase to historical events, namely the economic recession during the 1620s that forced Dutch artists to produce more reasonably priced paintings. 6. Conversely, Eric Jan Sluijter proposed that Dutch painters developed their tonal techniques to compete with Flemish artists. 7. Nevertheless, Dune landscape with farmers is a superb example of Dutch seventeenth century tonal landscape painting.
1. Wolfgang Stechow, Dutch Landscape Painting of the Seventeenth Century, London, 1975, (no. 136A, fig. 1). |