Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 4, 1912.djvu/253

 xiii JACOB VAN RUISDAEL 239 A. Hope, London, June 30, 1894, No. 61 (^640 : ios.). Molyneux and others, London, December 10, 1898, No. 120. In the Kempner collection, Berlin. 751. Landscape with Ruins. Sm. 3. A bank with a wall stretches diagonally across from the left foreground to the right distance. In front of a ruined brick building, which has been converted into a cottage and has steps leading up to the door, a woman stoops to spread out linen. A clay bank beyond is covered with bushes and trees. Five or six willows, a cottage, and more trees are visible. To the right runs a road. The right half of the foreground is filled by a pond with reeds and waterfowl. Beyond to the right is a man with a boy. Panel, 19 J inches by 26 inches. Engraved by Le Bas ; lithographed by Spruyt. Exhibited at Brussels, 1882, No. 207. Sales. Comte Baudouin, Paris, 1772. Robert de St. Victor, Paris, November 26, 1822 (3060 francs). In the collection of the Due d'Arenberg, Brussels, 1829 catalogue, No. 71 ; not mentioned in W. Burger's 1869 catalogue. 752. A RUINED CASTLE ON A HILL. The castle stands to the left. Beside water on the right is a clump of trees. A view of a sunlit plain. On a road is a group of three figures with a dog. There are ducks on the water. A very fine picture. Signed in full on the right at foot. In the Palace, Dessau, No. 868. 753. THE MONASTERY. On the left, at the foot of a wooded hill, stands a monastery with a large square tower broken away at the top. The sunlight falls from the right on the buildings. A road runs from the left foreground past the monastery to a house amid trees in the centre of the middle distance, where the hill slopes down steeply. In the left foreground is a stream with reedy banks. In the centre an artist, with his back to the spectator, sits on the bank, sketching. In the right foreground is a clump of fine trees, the most prominent of which has a white sunlit trunk. In the right-hand corner a sportsman takes cover behind rocks. In the left foreground are an angler and another man. Across the stream, opposite the artist, are cows. Other figures are in front of the monastery. Grey clouds to the left of the sky. Similar in composition to 619 and 748. The figures recall the style of Berchem, especially the sportsman and the artist, perhaps also the cows, but possibly not the two men to the left. The picture is famous through Goethe's description of it in his essay, Ruisdael ah Dichter (" Ruisdael the Poet "). Signed on the right at foot with the monogram ; canvas, 30 inches by 38 inches. In the Dresden inventory of 1754, ii. 189. In the Dresden Gallery, 1908 catalogue, No. 1494. 754. RUINS BESIDE A CANAL. The canal stretches from the foreground into the distance. On the right bank are ruins with an