River View with Church and Ferry

Salomon van Ruysdael was a master at suggesting vast space in his landscapes. He used diagonal lines that disappear into the distance, which in this case include the bank alongside the water and the sky with windswept clouds.

Van Ruysdael – the uncle of the famous landscape painter Jacob van Ruisdael – did not depict an existing landscape. The church and the small castle in the distance came from his imagination. Nevertheless, the river view is as Dutch as can be.