(Haarlem circa 1601–1670)
A winter landscape with figures on the ice,
signed and dated lower centre: S. V. Ruyesdael,
oil on panel, oval, 29.5 x 38.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Roos & Co, P. C. Haemacher, F. L. Berré, Amsterdam, 30 November 1897, lot 96;
Duchessa Marie di Bojano, née Countess of Schönborn-Wiesentheid (1848–1929), Florence;
Constantin Georges Nano (1870–1952), Berlin;
his sale, Lepke, Berlin, 3 April 1928, lot 200;
sale, Drouot, Paris, 15 December 1980, lot 36;
with Galerie Müllenmeister, Solingen;
Rhenish private collection;
sale, Lempertz, Cologne, 17 May 2014, lot 1141;
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
W. Stechow, Salomon van Ruysdael, Berlin 1938, pp. 68, 78–79, nos. 4 and 96;
W. Stechow, Salomon van Ruysdael, Berlin 1975, pp. 68, 82, nos. 4 and 96

We are grateful to Ellis Dullart for confirming the attribution of the present painting to Salomon van Ruysdael.

The present wintery scene, with figures swaddled against the cold beneath a grey blue sky, is a typically vivid and brisk depiction of the countryside around Haarlem by Salomon van Ruysdael. The lilac and white contrasting tones of the sky give way to the weak sunlight modelling the fenced windmill that closes off the composition to the left. The low horizon is typically Dutch and shows the innovative realism of landscape painting in the Gouden Eeuw, as developed by van Ruysdael and his contemporary Jan van Goyen from the pioneering works of Esais van de Velde. In the present, oval shaped panel, the curved format compliments the meandering, serpentine lines of the river, snaking into the distance, while the scene is enlivened by the peasant girl beside the windmill who watches the boys treading unsteadily out onto the ice.

Salomon van Ruysdael, uncle of the even more renowned painter Jacob van Ruysdael, was registered at the Guild of Saint Luke in Haarlem under the name Salomon de Goyer in 1623. At some point the family changed their name to Ruysdael, apparently after a castle of that name in the Gooiland that may have been a historic family seat. The present work, signed and dated: S.V. Rueysdael 1629, is from a phase in Ruysdael’s oeuvre between 1628–31 when he wrote his surname with an extra ‘e’ in the middle, and shows the master at the peak of his powers.