Paintings in the Collection of Henry Clay Frick, 1915 [page 31]

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JACOB VAN RUISDAEL (1628-1682) A WATER FALL Canvas, 33 1/2 inches by 39 1/2 inches

THE composition of this superb picture exhibits, on the left, a lofty rocky hill, partly covered with verdure, and crowned with a cluster of trees of varied foliage, above the tops of which appears the spire of neighboring village church; through a ravine in the same hill rushes a volume of water, which it rolls in reapid eddies toward the left, and gurgles amidst stones over a great portion of the foreground. A high bank of broken fern, on which lie the trunks of three trees, makes the boundary of the stream on the right; from hence the eye is conducted to a rustic bridge, over which a shepherd is driving a flock of sheep. The aspect is that of a fine day, and it is impossible to commend too highly this beautiful production of art, for nothing ever came from the pencil of the painter more faithful to nature, or more perfect in its mechanism and general arrangement." —Quoted from Smith's Catalogue Raisonne.

Signed below on the rock, "J. Ruisdael."

Formerly in the collection of Baron Lockhorst, John Smith, author of the Catalogue Raisonne, and the Earl of Onslow.

"After having given marvellous views of his own country, Ruisdael commenced in desperation to produce those wild scenes of mountain torrents dashing over rocks, with which his master, van Everdingen, had struck the popular fancy. A trip to the northern forests of Germany gave him his material. Although his work of this kind is superior to that o fHobbema, he still remained unappreciated, and he came to want. The members of the Mennonite community of Amsterdam, of which sect he was a member, secured admission for hi in the almshouse of Haarlem in 1681, where he died the following year." —Preyer.

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