RUISDAEL, Jacob Isaackszon van
(b. ca. 1628, Haarlem, d. 1682, Amsterdam)

Road through an Oak Forest

1646-47
Oil on canvas, 85 x 104 cm
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael is the most prominent and innovative representative of the landscape genre in the Dutch school during the second half of the 17th century. Since the beginning of the century a number of masters in Holland had shown an interest in capturing the different nuances of light and in depicting cloudy skies, granting nature a poetic quality and taking the genre to new heights. Ruisdael began to paint at a very early age with his father and his uncle, who were also well known for their landscapes. In 1649 he was accepted as a master in the guild of painters of Haarlem, and in 1657 he moved to Amsterdam, where he remained for the rest of his life.