A wooded landscape

A Wooded Landscape of 1662, now at the National Gallery of Ireland, represents van Ruisdael's mature approach to the forest scene — dense, atmospheric, complex in its handling of overlapping tree forms and filtered light. The National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin holds this and several other Dutch Golden Age works acquired through the collecting of Anglo-Irish aristocracy and the institution's own purchasing program. Van Ruisdael was forty or forty-one when this was painted, fully in command of his mature style and at the peak of his Amsterdam productivity. The 1662 date places this in his most celebrated decade, when the forest compositions, panoramic views, and waterfall series were all developing simultaneously in a burst of creative energy unmatched by any other Dutch landscape painter of his generation.

The dense woodland is rendered with varied tree forms and complex light effects. Ruisdael's handling of the interplay between sunlight and shadow through the canopy creates naturalistic depth.