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Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Jacob Isaacksz. van Ruisdael

Stormy Sea with Sailing Vessels

ca. 1668
Oil on canvas.
50.1 x 62.5 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
359
(
1957.2
)
ROOM 28
Level 2
Permanent Collection
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 13 15 16 17 18 22 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Recommended start of the visitClassical rooms
1 14th Century. Early Italian Painting 2 15th Century. German and Spanish Painting 3 15th Century. Early Netherlandish Painting 4 15th Century. Italian Painting 5 15th and 16th Centuries. Renaissance Portraiture 6 16th Century. Villahermosa Gallery 7 16th Century. Italian Painting 8 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 9 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 10 16th Century. Netherlandish Painting 11 Tiziano, Tintoretto, Bassano and  El Greco 12 17th Century. Caravaggio and Baroque Painting 13 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 14 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 15 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 16 18th Century. Italian Painting 17 18th Century. Italian Painting 18 18th Century. Italian Painting 19 Classical rooms 20 Classical rooms 21 Classical rooms 22 18th Century. Italian Painting 23 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 24 18th Century. French and English Painting 25 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Scenes of Daily Life and Interiors 26 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 27 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Portrait 28 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 29 19th Century. European Painting. Goya and Romanticism  
Among the subjects painted by Jacob van Ruisdael, along with scenes of dunes, fields and forests, are his marine views, although these are fewer in number. The date when the artist first began to depict marine themes has been the subject of widespread debate. Stechow considered that Van Ruisdael began to produce such works in the 1660s, coinciding with his move to Amsterdam. Rosenberg, however, considered that he might have already been painting them in the 1640s, while Slive suggested the late 1640s as a starting point. The influence of two earlier painters has been noted on Van Ruisdael’s marine views: Jan Porcellis, who modernised this genre, and his follower Simon de Vlieger. Van Ruisdael’s marine views were either specific commissions or were intended for sale on the open market.

In the present canvas the artist used a format that is to be found in a number of his marine views with some changes to the elements involved. We see a bold, volumetric sky that becomes one of the most important elements in the painting, occupying three-quarters of the surface area while the sea is reduced to a narrow strip. The water is depicted as rough and choppy, whipped up into waves by the wind that also fills the slanting sails of the boats, pushing them forwards in the water. On occasions Van Ruisdael located a faint strip of land on the horizon with the forms of a city, while other compositions include areas of rock or buoys or other maritime signals made from wooden poles, as we see here on the right. His boats, sailing vessels and small craft are usually located in the middle and far distance, with the foreground occupied by a rough sea on which the sunlight is rarely to be seen in the immediate foreground. This is generally in shadow while the more distant planes have alternating strips of light that create strong contrasts. In this example the large, s-shaped area of darkness created by the shadow of the cloud covers the largest vessel, while the buoy on the right creates a contrast by means of the white foam breaking around it.

Gaskell mentioned the similarity between this canvas and one by Turner entitled Port Ruysdael in the Yale Centre for British Art in New Haven. He suggested that Turner might have seen the present canvas when it was in London as it was to be found there from 1817 and was auctioned on two occasions. The buoys, beacons and other maritime warning signals that appear in this group of paintings by Van Ruisdael have been read as referring to the journey of life and to Christ as the safe haven for mankind.

Mar Borobia
17th Century17th Century - Dutch paintingPaintingOilcanvas
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Stormy Sea with Sailing Vessels. Mar tormentoso con barcos de vela, c. 1668
Stormy Sea with Sailing Vessels
Jacob Isaacksz. van Ruisdael

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

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Stormy Sea with Sailing Vessels. Mar tormentoso con barcos de vela, c. 1668
Stormy Sea with Sailing Vessels
Jacob Isaacksz. van Ruisdael

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

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