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Your galleryLow Waterfall in a Wooded Landscape with a Dead Beech Tree
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Follow the pale, broken trunk of the dead beech from the dune down to the rushing water, then find the sunlit ruin among the trees at right.
From the late 1650s Ruisdael also painted waterfalls, following the example of Allart van Everdingen, who had traveled in Scandinavia. For Ruisdael, a dead tree, a waterfall or a ruin could stand for time passing. He studied trees in every state of decay from nature, and gave the cloudy sky as much care as the land below.
oil on canvas · Framed: 123 x 157 x 9.5 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art · Dutch Golden Age
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Low Waterfall in a Wooded Landscape with a Dead Beech Tree
- Artist
- Jacob van Ruisdael (Dutch, 1628/29–1682)
- Date
- c. 1660–70
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Framed: 123 x 157 x 9.5 cm (48 7/16 x 61 13/16 x 3 3/4 in.); Unframed: 99.2 x 131 cm (39 1/16 x 51 9/16 in.)
- Credit line
- Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.