View of Bentheim Castle
Jacob van Ruisdael
c.c.1652 - 1654
Van Ruisdael’s works form the pinnacle of Dutch landscape painting. They often have a monumental air about them. Here, he achieves this effect by making us look up at the castle from below. Van Ruisdael was the first to use this artistic device.
The Haarlem artist Van Ruisdael visited Bentheim Castle – just over the German border – in the summer of 1650. It must have made a deep impression on him, as he chose it regularly as a subject in the years that followed.
oil on panel
51.9 x 67.7 cm.
Acquisition with the support of the Dutch State, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Fund for National Cultural Heritage, BankGiro Lottery, Friends of the Mauritshuis Foundation, Rembrandt Association (supported by the Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation), Noortman Master Paintings, VSB Fund Foundation, private benefactor, ING Group, Mondriaan Foundation, 2005