Jacob van Ruisdael

Blick auf Haarlem

Jacob van Ruisdael Gezicht op Haarlem met bleekvelden View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds
Jacob van Ruisdael Gezicht op Haarlem met bleekvelden View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds
Jacob van Ruisdael Gezicht op Haarlem met bleekvelden View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds
Jacob van Ruisdael Gezicht op Haarlem met bleekvelden View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds
Jacob van Ruisdael Gezicht op Haarlem met bleekvelden View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds
Jacob van Ruisdael Gezicht op Haarlem met bleekvelden View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds

Jacob van Ruisdael
Blick auf Haarlem

Zu sehen in Saal 12

In diesem Gemälde fing van Ruisdael das Wesen der holländischen Landschaft ein. Von einem hohen Punkt in den Dünen schauen wir über das flache Land auf eine in der Ferne liegende Stadt, Haarlem. Darüber dehnt sich ein weiter Himmel mit vorbeiziehenden Wolkenbergen.

Van Ruisdael hielt auch die Sonnenstrahlen fest, die durch die Wolken dringen und abwechselnd Licht und Schatten erzeugen. Über die hellen Partien lenkt er unseren Blick ins Bildinnere, über die Felder, wo Leinen zum Bleichen ausgebreitet liegt, bis hin zur fernen St. Bavo Kirche.

Technische Daten
Jacob van Ruisdael Gezicht op Haarlem met bleekvelden View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds

Jacob van Ruisdael
Blick auf Haarlem

Zu sehen in Saal 12

Nach oben

In the 1670s Jacob van Ruisdael produced at least fifteen panoramas of the picturesque landscape behind the dunes near Haarlem and Alkmaar, which seventeenth-century inventories called ‘Haarlempjes’ (Haarlem scenes). For this painting he made a preliminary drawing from the top of some high dunes to the west of Haarlem, which he would later use for reference in his studio. The city’s skyline largely corresponds to the existing situation. From left to right we see the Bakenesse Church and the roof of St John’s Church, followed by the blunt top of the little bell-tower and next to it the Great or St Bavo’s Church with its characteristic pointed central tower rising high above the city. A windmill, the town hall and the tower of the New Church complete the panorama.

In spite of its modest size, this is a truly impressive scene. This is because Van Ruisdael has opted for a high vantage point, enabling him to keep the horizon low. As a result, the impressive cloud formations that became the painter’s trademark take up most of the canvas. The half-clouded skies create alternating sun and shade in the landscape, which Van Ruisdael subtly exploits to enhance the depth of the scene. The fields in the foreground with the long strips of white linen, the middle ground and the city itself lie bathed in sunlight, while the landscape in between is enveloped in shadow. Because of this, numerous elements in the sunlit sections catch extra light: the sails of a little windmill, a yellow cornfield, white foam on the water, and the white trunk of a birch-tree.

Between the dunes and the city lie long strips of linen, bleaching in the fields. The linen industry, together with beer brewing, was one of the most important industrial activities in seventeenth-century Haarlem. The cloth was prepared in a complex procedure, the smallest technical details of which are known to us today. The fabric was washed, rinsed and dried, then treated with lye, after which it was laid out in the sun on the bleaching fields for eight days. After this bleaching process the fabric was steeped in lactic acid, washed again, and finally laid out to dry or hung over posts in the sand-dunes. Some of the cloth was imported from the Baltic region or from England, and some was woven in Haarlem. The importance of this industry for Haarlem and the surrounding area undoubtedly boosted the popularity of these ‘Haarlempjes’, which were produced by several other Haarlem and Amsterdam painters besides Van Ruisdael. The bleaching fields almost always feature prominently in these scenes.

(this is a reworked version of a text published in in: P. van der Ploeg, Q. Buvelot, Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis: A princely collection, The Hague 2005)

Details

Allgemeine Informationen
Jacob van Ruisdael (Haarlem 1628/1629 - 1682 Amsterdam)
Blick auf Haarlem
painting
155
Saal 12
Material und technische Daten
oil
canvas
55.5 x 62 cm
Inschriften
lower right: JvRuisdael
JvR in ligature

Ursprung

Samuel Beyerman, Gouda, 1778; Gerrit Muller, Amsterdam, by 1822-1827; purchased, 1827