1646
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Landscape with a Windmill is a 1646 unspecified by Jacob van Ruisdael, a Baroque work, depicting Windmill, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a windmill on a small hill, dark clouds above, and a wide, flat field below. Ruisdael painted this when he was just a teenager, but you’d never guess. The way he stacks shadows in the front makes the sunlit plain feel huge—like you could walk into it. The windmill isn’t just scenery; it’s the only thing standing tall against the sky. If you like this quiet power, look up *chiaroscuro*.
Even this early work by Jacob van Ruisdael—painted while he was still a teenager—shows his unique approach to landscape that made the simplest motifs seem grand and heroic. Dark forms are massed in the foreground, creating a stark contrast to the expansive, sunlit plain at left.
Look closely at the field across from the windmill: white linens are naturally bleached in the sun, a process that would have taken several months.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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…
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