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

Waterfall by a Church

1667-70
Oil on canvas, 109 x 132 cm
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne

Ruisdael often chose waterfalls as a subject for his landscape paintings after the 1650s, inspired by the dramatic Scandinavian waterfall scenes of Allaert van Everdingen. Ruisdael's paintings were done in Amsterdam, which succeeded Haarlem as the centre of landscape painting after the middle of the century. At the same time a heightened expression became fashionable.