JACOB VAN RUISDAEL
122 Dead Tree by a Stream
at the Foot of a Hill
Black chalk, point of brush, and light and dark gray
wash; H: 14.4 cm (5ZI/6 in.); W: 18.9 cm (y^7 /i6 in.)
85.00.41 0
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at bottom left,
signed JVR (interlaced) in black ink; (verso) collection
mark of Dr. H. E. ten Gate (L. Suppl. 533b).
PROVENANCE: Dr. H. E. ten Gate, Almelo; Adolph
Schwarz, Amsterdam; art market, California.
EXHIBITIONS: De verzameling van A. Schwarz, Rijks-
prentenkabinet, Amsterdam, 1968, no. 90 (catalogue by
J. W. Niemeijer).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: D. Hannema, Catalogue of the H. E. ten
Gate Collection (Rotterdam, 1955), vol. i, p. 156, no. 283;
J. Giltay, "De tekeningen van Jacob van Ruisdael," Oud
Holland 94 (1980), pp. 155, no. 13; 190, 205.
THIS DRAWING HAS BEEN INCLUDED BY GlLTAY IN A
group of eight landscapes with numerous trees, all of
which he has dated to 1650-166 0 (1980, p. 155). This
dating would conform with the setting, tentatively iden-
tified by him as Bentheim (Giltay 1980, p. 190), a sug-
gestion supported by S. Slive.^1 The latter has noted that
half-timbered buildings are not found in Holland and
that van Ruisdael only began incorporating them into his
paintings and drawings after his trip to Bentheim around
i65O.^2 A similar structure recurs in van Ruisdael's paint-
ing of 1653, The Castle of Bentheim (Blessington, Beit
collection).^3
The composition of this drawing was anticipated in
the painting Landscape with Cottages, Dunes and Willows
of 1646 (Southhill, Biggleswade, S. Whitbread collec-
tion).^4 In both, a relatively large mass of trees and foliage
appears in the right foreground, while the left side opens
to a deep diagonal vista interrupted by only a few minor
motifs. Equally, the composition of the Museum's draw-
ing is paralleled in an etching by van Ruisdael, The Little
Bridge, dated by Slive to around 1650-1655, just after the
artist s return from Bentheim.^5 The two not only agree
in overall composition but also contain the same detail of
a man walking across a small footbridge.
Van Ruisdael first sketched the Museum's compo-
sition in black chalk and then went over it with a brush
in gray wash of various tonalities, creating a rich diver-
sity of textural and light effects, especially at the right.
On the basis of similar handling, Giltay (1980, pp. 150—
151, 155) has related this sheet to a group of eight draw-
ings of the ruins of the castle at Egmond aan den Hoef,
dating them all to the mid-i65os.1. During a visit to Malibu in 1985 Slive also noted his accep-
tance of the authenticity of the monogram.
2. S. Slive, Jacob van Ruisdael, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum,
Harvard University, Cambridge, 1982, p. 253.
3. Ibid., no. 14.- Ibid., fig. 6.
5. Ibid., no. 105-A.
272 DUTCH SCHOOL • VAN RUISDAEL