Landscape with a Windmill

Landscape with a Windmill was painted by Jacob van Ruisdael in 1646, early in his career, and is signed and dated JvR 1646 on the oil-on-panel support; the work was made in Haarlem. It entered the Cook collection, owned by Francis, Frederick and Herbert Cook, and remained there until the collection was sold at Christie’s in London on 25 November 1966. The painting was purchased by the New York dealer Kunsthandlung F. Kleinberger & Co, then acquired in 1967 by the Mr and Mrs William H. Marlatt Fund, which lent it to the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Exhibition history includes a 1946 showing of Cook Collection works at the Usher Gallery, Lincoln, a 1964‑66 loan to Manchester City Art Gallery, and a 2011 Ruisdael retrospective at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The painting is held in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, where it bears the accession number 1967.19. It entered the museum in 1967 as a loan from the Mr and Mrs William H. Marlatt Fund, which had purchased the work that year from New York dealer Kunsthandlung F. Kleinberger & Co; Kleinberger had acquired it at the Christie’s auction of the Cook collection on 25 November 1966. Exhibition history includes a 1946 showing of Cook Collection works at the Usher Gallery in Lincoln, UK, a loan to the Manchester City Art Gallery from 1964 to 1966, and a 2011 presentation in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Jacob van Ruisdael landscapes exhibition.

Jacob van Ruisdael's Landscape with a Windmill (1646) exemplifies the early phase of his landscape oeuvre, showing the compositional influence of his uncle and teacher Salomon van Ruysdael while already displaying his distinctive attention to botanical detail and the symbolic weight of the windmill. Scholars note that the work anticipates motifs he would revisit throughout his career, such as a foreground landmark set against an expansive background. The painting entered the Cleveland Museum of Art via the Cook collection, which sold it at Christie's in 1966; it was subsequently acquired by the William H. Marlatt Fund and has been exhibited in Lincoln (1946), Manchester (1964‑66) and the 2011 CMA retrospective.

Its precise rendering of vegetation and the interpretation of the windmill as a metaphor for divine power reflect its significance within Dutch Golden Age landscape painting.

Landscape with a Windmill remains an important early work in Jacob van Ruisdael’s oeuvre, noted for its compositional formula that he revisited throughout his career. The painting is held by the Cleveland Museum of Art and has been featured in exhibitions such as the 1946 Cook Collection show at the Usher Gallery, the 1964‑66 Manchester City Art Gallery display, and the 2011 Ruisdael landscape survey at Cleveland. It is catalogued in Seymour Slive’s raisonné and discussed in his study of windmills, underscoring its scholarly reputation.

The work’s emphasis on a monumental windmill and naturalistic vegetation influenced Ruisdael’s later landscapes, cementing its legacy within his artistic development.

Jacob van Ruisdael's Landscape with a Windmill, painted in 1646, is an early example of the Dutch artist's work in oil on panel. This serene composition, signed and dated by the artist, is now part of the collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art. It offers insight into the formative period of Ruisdael's career, showcasing his developing approach to landscape painting.