Wooded landscape with a water fall

Wooded Landscape with a Waterfall from around 1660 at the Stadel Museum in Frankfurt shows Ruisdael's mature approach to the waterfall subject. The combination of dense woodland and cascading water creates scenes of powerful natural drama. Working from prints by Allart van Everdingen who had visited Scandinavia, Ruisdael constructed convincing cascades using fluid, energetic paint handling for the white water and dense impasto for mossy rocks. These proto-Romantic subjects prefigure the Subli...

Dense trees frame the waterfall, creating a dramatic natural theater. Ruisdael's handling of the cascade's movement and the forest's deep shadows creates compelling contrasts of light and dark.