River Landscape with Ferry

Salomon van Ruysdael’s masterful River Landscape with Ferry has a visual force that reflects the sense of pride the Dutch felt at the time of the signing of the Treaty of Münster in 1648, which gave full autonomy to the Dutch Republic. After war of independence from Spanish rule that lasted eighty years, the Dutch set out to explore the myriad visual delights of the prosperous country that they could finally claim as their own. Many went east, along the Rhine River, to see historic cities such as Nijmegen and Rhenen that had played significant roles in the formation of the Republic. Ruysdael may have traveled along these same routes, but no drawings from his hand survive to document any such journey. The large crenulated castle in this painting is a fanciful construct, but it is reminiscent of fortresslike structures situated along the Rhine in the eastern region of the Netherlands.

Ruysdael painted River Landscape with Ferry in 1649 when the full scope of his artistic personality had come to maturity. The work is imposing in scale and visually compelling, both for its harmonious composition and for the rich variety of its pictorial elements. It has wonderful atmospheric qualities, subtle reflections in the water, and delightful figures crowded into the ferryboat. The large clump of trees centers the composition and provides a sturdy framework for the animals and humans activating the scene. Ruysdael also effectively used these trees to open the sense of space, for not only does the ferryboat pass before them, but wagons loaded with passengers also travel the track behind them.

With the outbreak of World War II in the Netherlands, art dealer Jacques Goudstikker fled Amsterdam with his wife and son in May 1940, but he died in an accident on board the ship carrying him and his family to safety. He left behind most of his gallery's stock of paintings, and the Goudstikker collection, including this work by Ruysdael, was confiscated by the Nazis and delivered to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring later that year. The Allied forces recovered the painting at the end of the war, and it was returned to the State of the Netherlands in 1948. The painting was on view in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, from 1960 until 2006, at which time the heirs of Jacques Goudstikker reclaimed the collection from the Dutch government and received the restituted paintings. The National Gallery of Art acquired River Landscape with Ferry when a number of Goudstikker paintings subsequently reentered the art market.

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