Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 4, 1912.djvu/19

 xin JACOB VAN RUISDAEL 5 then, on the strength of documentary evidence, was dismissed as a mere frame-maker. Finally, it was discovered after all that contemporary inventories mentioned pictures of his, proving that, outside his ordinary trade as a frame-maker, he must at least have practised the art of painting to eke out a living. It is usual to attribute to him though without any proof a few not very remarkable landscapes, signed " I. v. R." The best known of these is in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin, No. 901 D ; it is a woodland scene, in a greenish-grey tone, and displays little artistic character. The numerous landscapes by SALOMON VAN RUYSDAEL (1600-1670) should not be confused with those of his nephew, for they are entirely different in every respect. They are only mentioned here because, at a time when the name of their painter was completely obscured by that of the famous Ruisdael, Salomon's signature was transformed by the erasure or alteration of the S into that of his nephew Jacob. The transformation is, however, at once detected if one remembers that Salomon and his son Jacob spelt the family name regularly " Ruysdael " with a y, while the signature of his nephew, the great Jacob, is with a very few and therefore suspicious exceptions always spelt " Ruisdael " with an i. The third painter in the family, JACOB SALOMONSZOON VAN RUYSDAEL (1635-81), was in the main a pupil and imitator of his father Salomon, especially of the works of his mature and late period. In his later years Salomon liked to paint in strong tones landscapes without water, in which fine old oaks stand out one by one amid bushes, or pictures of travellers at an inn, shepherds with their flocks, foraging parties or robbers. His son inherited from him a preference for strong local colour in the hills, the figures, foliage and sky ; he, too, delighted in painting with much care the giants of the forest. But in regard to accessories Jacob, Salomon's son, was usually content with large or small groups of reddish-brown cows, by the peculiar drawing of which his hand is most easily recognised. Ruisdael's predecessor, CORNELIS VROOM (1600-1661), was unlucky in being eclipsed by his better-known and more prolific father H. C. Vroom, who was in his day a famous painter of sea-pieces and of naval battles. There was a time when no one knew of the existence of a landscape- painter called Vroom. If his signature in small capitals was found on a landscape, the last three letters were often erased and the " VR " which remained was represented as a signature of Jacob van Ruisdael. For this reason there are now few signed pictures by this artist, who was highly gifted but produced little. His masterpiece hangs in the Schwerin Gallery, No. 1099 ; it is more closely related to a good Dubois than to a Ruisdael. His other pictures, in the museums at Dresden, Mannheim, Copenhagen, and elsewhere, show in their small and restless handling a certain resemblance to the youthful work of Jacob van Ruisdael. The work of GUILLIAM DUBOIS (before 1646-80) was at one time very often confused with that of Ruisdael. At Bridgewater House a picture of his (No. 266) still bears Ruisdael's name. Dubois was less gifted and less many-sided than Ruisdael. He painted his trees, figures,