Dunes by the Sea

Jacob van Ruisdael painted Dunes by the Sea in 1648 while working in Haarlem. The work entered the collection of Bremen dealer Richter Oelrich around 1820 and was acquired by Bernhard Hausmann of Hanover in 1828, who praised it as a 'capital painting of the first order'. It was sold circa 1857 to King George V of Hanover, who marked the panel with his monogram, then passed by inheritance to his son Ernest August II, Duke of Cumberland.

A 1925 Lepke auction in Berlin dispersed the work (16,500 Reichsmarks); subsequent owners included a Cologne collector, the Amsterdam firm K. & V. Waterman, and New York dealers before Norman and Suzanne Hascoe acquired it in 1983. The Hascoes sold the work at Christie's New York on 4 June 2014; it subsequently passed through Richard Green Fine Paintings, London, and entered the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., in May 2017.

Jacob van Ruisdael's Dunes by the Sea (1648) has been consistently recognized as a masterpiece within the artist's oeuvre for its technical precision and atmospheric depth. Nineteenth-century collector Bernhard Hausmann prized the work, describing it in 1828 as a 'capital painting of the first order'. This high regard persisted through subsequent ownerships, including King George V of Hanover, whose monogram (GR with a crown) remains visible on the panel's reverse.

The painting's acquisition by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, underscores its enduring status in Dutch Golden Age landscape painting and exemplifies the Haarlem school's focus on natural grandeur and atmospheric mood.

Jacob van Ruisdael's Dunes by the Sea has long been recognized as a work of exceptional quality. Bernhard Hausmann's 19th-century description as a 'capital painting of the first order' set the tone for its subsequent reputation, sustained through ownership by King George V of Hanover and the House of Cumberland. Its acquisition by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., in 2017 following a significant Christie's sale confirms its standing as a distinguished example of Dutch landscape painting from 1648.

Dunes by the Sea is an oil painting on a wooden panel, depicting a stark coastal scene. A broad dune dominates the foreground, sloping towards a calm, flat expanse of sea beneath an overcast sky. The composition emphasizes the elemental forces of nature, devoid of human or animal presence, focusing instead on the landscape itself.