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River Landscape with Ferry
Salomon van Ruysdael·1649
Historical Context
Salomon van Ruysdael's River Landscape with Ferry from 1649 is a quintessential example of his mature river landscape style — the calm river surface reflecting sky and boats, the flat horizon with distant town, the foreground ferry transaction providing the human scale and social observation that animated his otherwise serene atmospheric compositions. By 1649, Ruysdael had developed his tonal approach to its maximum reduction — the entire composition unified in a narrow range of grey-green and silver tones that captured the specific quality of Dutch light on overcast days with a fidelity that no contemporary painter matched. His ferry scenes were among his most commercially successful works, collected throughout the Dutch Republic and beyond.
Technical Analysis
Van Ruysdael's oil on canvas achieves atmospheric depth through his mastery of tonal painting, with silvery-grey skies reflected in the river and the ferry silhouetted against a luminous horizon.
Provenance
Possibly Major Hugh Edward Wilbraham, M.B.E. [1857-1930], Delamere House, near Northwich, Cheshire; by inheritance to his son, George Hugh de Vernon Wilbraham [1890-1962], Delamere House; (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 18 July 1930, no. 33); (Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam);[1] restituted 6 February 2006 to his daughter-in-law, Marei von Saher, Greenwich, Connecticut; purchased 5 November 2007 through (Christie's, New York) by NGA. [1] The dealer Jacques Goudstikker fled Amsterdam with his wife and son in May 1940, and died in an accident on board the ship on which he left. He left behind most of his gallery's stock of paintings, including the Ruysdael, and with the rest of the Goudstikker paintings, it was confiscated by the Nazis later the same year and delivered to Hermann Göring; see _Rapport inzake de Kunsthandel v.h J Goudstikker NV in oprichtung per 13 September 1940_, Bijlage III, "Staat van Schilderijen, gekocht door den Rijksveldmaarschalk H. Göring van de "oude" Goudstikker,” Access no. 1341, inv. 103, Gemeentearchief, Amsterdam. The painting was recovered by the Allies at the end of World War II and held at the Munich Central Collecting Point (where it was no. 5324), before being returned to the Netherlands in 1948. In the Netherlands, ownership was transferred among several museums, during which time the painting maintained the identifying inventory number NK 2347: Stichting Nederlands Kunstbezit, The Hague, in 1948; Dienst voor's Rijks Verspreide Kunstvoorwerpen, The Hague, 1948-1975; Dienst Verspreide Rijkscollecties, The Hague, 1975-1985; Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst, The Hague, 1985-1997; and Instituut Collectie Nederland, Amsterdam, in 1997. Physical custody of the painting was transferred in 1960 to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, where it had the inventory number SK A 3983 and where it remained until 2006. In 2005, the Dutch Advisory Committee on the Assessment of Restitution Applications for Items of Cultural Value and the Second World War recommended in favor of the Goudstikker family's claim for the return of this and other paintings that had been confiscated in 1940. The surviving heirs were Marei von Saher, the widow of Goudstikker's son, Edward, and her daughters, Charlène and Chantel, who received the restituted paintings in early 2006.
