Jacob van Ruisdael
Dutch, 1628/1629 ‑ 1682
Landscape with a Half‑Timbered House and a Blasted Tree, 1653
Oil on canvas
26 5/8 × 32 3/8 × 7/8 in. (67.6 × 82.2 × 2.2 cm.)
Museum purchase  1998.3

Expert with Brush and Scalpel
Jacob van Ruisdael was the most important and influential Dutch landscape artist of his time. After his studies, he settled in Amsterdam, maintaining a successful painting studio where he trained the next generation of Dutch landscape painters. This painting features the rugged terrain and distinctive half-timbered houses that the artist encountered during a trip to the Dutch-German border about 1650. A keen observer of nature, van Ruisdael focused on botanical accuracy in his depiction of trees and vegetation. In addition to making seven hundred paintings and one hundred drawings, Ruisdael received a medical degree in 1676 and probably pursued a successful second career as a surgeon.