Artwork
A Wooded Marsh
A Wooded Marsh is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Jacob van Ruisdael. It dates from 1660 and is held in the collection of the Hermitage Museum. Created in the 1660s, this oil on canvas depicts a tranquil marshland framed by trees.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The scene is framed by beeches and oaks, including a prominent withered oak and a felled beech in the right foreground, whose reflections appear in the water.
The painting depicts a stagnant pool overgrown with flowering water-lilies and other aquatic plants, extending from the foreground into the distance. The scene is framed by beeches and oaks, including a prominent withered oak and a felled beech in the right foreground, whose reflections appear in the water. White ducks are shown flying into bushes as a distant figure approaches, while a boatman poles a vessel on a river in the background.
The composition creates a secluded, self-contained universe of dense vegetation that contrasts sharply with the clear azure sky above. Chromatically, the work shifts from dark browns and greens in the marsh to the bright sky, emphasizing the separation between the shadowed wetland and the open atmosphere. This arrangement of decaying and living elements within a confined natural setting characterizes the work as a distinct example of Dutch Golden Age landscape painting.
Technique & Style
A Wooded Marsh is an oil painting executed on canvas, measuring 72.5 by 99 cm. The work features a palette ranging from brown to dark green, which contrasts sharply with a clear blue sky containing white clouds. Visually, the composition depicts a stagnant pool covered in flowering water-lilies, flanked by beeches and oaks reflected in the water. A prominent withered oak stands in the right foreground near a felled tree, while white ducks are shown taking flight near bushes on the left.
In the distance, a figure poles a small boat along a river traversing the marsh. Historical documentation notes that while the picture was once considered exquisite, much of the original green foliage color has faded over time. The artist signed the work in full at the lower left.
History & Provenance
Jacob van Ruisdael executed this oil on canvas landscape, titled A Wooded Marsh, during the 1660s. While some records suggest a specific date of 1660, other sources narrow the creation period to between 1665 and 1669. The work was documented by John Smith in his 1835 catalogue raisonné, where he valued the painting at £450.
It subsequently entered the collection of Empress Catherine II of Russia, who acquired it after 1763 from the heirs of Count von Brühl as part of a larger purchase of over six hundred paintings. By 1901, the piece was catalogued as number 1136 in the Hermitage Palace in St. Petersburg, where it remains today. The painting was also exhibited at the Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis in The Hague from October 1981 to January 1982.
The painting is held in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, where it is inventoried as Gallery 1136 in the 1901 catalogue.
It was acquired by Catherine II of Russia after 1763 from the estate of Count Heinrich von Brühl, having been previously in the Hermitage Palace by 1835. The work was exhibited at the Mauritshuis, The Hague, from 1 October 1981 to 3 January 1982 in the Jacob van Ruisdael retrospective.
Context
Created in the mid-1660s, A Wooded Marsh stands as a significant example of Dutch Golden Age landscape painting by Jacob van Ruisdael. The work was documented by Cornelis Hofstede de Groot in 1911, who described it as a "genuine and very fine picture," though he noted that the green foliage had faded over time. Its composition, featuring a stagnant pool flanked by beeches and oaks, reflects a recurring theme in Ruisdael's oeuvre from this period.
Art historical analysis suggests that scenes of this nature served as inspiration for subsequent generations of landscape painters. The painting entered the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg after being acquired by Empress Catherine II of Russia, having previously been part of the collection of Count von Brühl.
Legacy
Later painters of landscape drew on Ruisdael’s wooded marsh scenes as models of atmospheric depth and compositional control. Hofstede de Groot’s 1911 catalogue noted that works like this one "often served as inspiration for later painters of landscape," linking the composition’s handling of light, water, and foliage to subsequent Dutch and European landscape practice. The painting’s acquisition by Catherine II and its presence in the Hermitage ensured its continued study by generations of artists and scholars.
Exhibitions in the modern era, including the 1981–82 Jacob van Ruisdael show at the Mauritshuis in The Hague, reinforced its canonical status within the canon of seventeenth-century landscape.
Overview
Created in the 1660s, this oil on canvas depicts a tranquil marshland framed by trees. The work belongs to the Dutch Golden Age and is presently housed in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Artist
Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He is generally considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great wealth and cultural achievement when…
