Salomon van Ruysdael was the son of the Mennonite cabinetmaker Jacob Jansz de Goyer (c. 1560-1616) from Naarden. Shortly after his father’s death, Ruysdael and his brother Isack – the father of the famous landscape painter Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/29-1682) – moved to Haarlem, where Salomon entered the Guild of St Luke in 1623 under the name Salomon de Gooyer. Shortly thereafter he adopted the name Ruysdael from the castle of that name in the Gooiland, which may once have been a family possession. Although several history paintings, and even some still lifes and batailles by his hand are known, van Ruysdael is most of all known as one of the ‘classic’ masters of Dutch seventeenth century landscape painting. His subject matter included seascapes, winter landscapes, dune landscapes, village views and a wide variety of river landscapes.
The present painting is one of a number that he painted in Haarlem around 1650. The composition is bathed in a special atmosphere so diffuse that it recalls the light application of watercolor. The subject of the painting is shipping on a river; the sailboat flying the Dutch flag is a “schouw”, a shallow-draft vessel used to ship goods and carry occasional passengers on inland waterways. On the riverbank along the horizon a windmill can be seen, and the contours of a distant village.
