Jacob van Ruisdael

Jacob van Ruisdael by Slive, Seymour. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780896592377.

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 book, written by one of the most distinguished scholars of Dutch art, is a catalogue raisonne of Ruisdaels landscapes: almost seven hundred paintings, more than one hundred and thirty drawings, and thirteen rare etchings. Seymour Slive demonstrates the totality of the artists 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 In addition, Slive provides a documented chronology of Ruisdaels life based on a fresh examination of published and unpublished archival material; a chronological list of his dated works in all media; a topographical index; and concordances.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 Ruisdaels landscapes during the course of his lifelong passion for the master. The combination of text and reproductions makes this volume both a major work of scholarship and a vivid testimony to Ruisdaels ongoing legacy.