About this Book

Jacob van Ruisdael is the preeminent Dutch landscape painter of the seventeenth century, renowned for the wealth of closely observed naturalistic detail in his works. This beautiful book, written by one of the most distinguished scholars of Dutch art, is a catalogue raisonne of Ruisdael's landscapes: almost 700 paintings, more than 130 drawings, and 13 rare etchings.

Seymour Slive demonstrates the totality of the artist's vision in all three media, offering comprehensive and perceptive entries on all catalogued works. He also presents and discusses paintings and drawings that have been wrongly attributed to Ruisdael or whose status is uncertain. In addition, Slive provides a documented chronology of Ruisdael's life based on a fresh examination of published and unpublished archival material; a chronological list of his dated works in all media; a topographical index; and concordances. In two appendices, Slive reviews the proposal that Ruisdael had a second profession as a medical doctor and discusses the copies John Constable made of Ruisdael's landscapes during the course of his lifelong passion for the master.

The combination of text and lavish reproductions makes this volume both a major work of scholarship and a vivid testimony to Ruisdael's ongoing legacy.