The bleaches near Haarlem
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| The bleaches near Haarlem |
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| Jacob Isaacksz. van Ruisdael , around 1670 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 62.2 x 55.2 cm |
| Kunsthaus Zurich |
The bleaching near Haarlem is the title of a painting by Jacob Isaacksz. van Ruisdael , which was created around 1670. The picture has belonged to the Leopold Ružička Foundation since 1949 and has been exhibited at the Kunsthaus Zürich ever since . There are several works by the motive Ruisdael that the respected trade of bleaching of linen , which the former prosperity of the city Haarlem , representing co-founded.
Image content and interpretation
The painting has the format 62.2 × 55.2 cm and is executed in the technique of oil on canvas . Ruisdael's composition is a panoramic, correct city view of Haarlem with the surrounding landscape, which has a deep horizon. This landscape covers the lower third of the picture, the sky with a detailed cloud composition covers the upper two. These clouds underline the vastness of the landscape aimed at by the painter and only let the sunlight through in places, so that certain parts of the picture sometimes appear in bright light. Ruisdael takes great care in depicting these cumulus clouds. In the golden age of Dutch landscape painting, the climate in Europe began to cool down in the mid-16th century, the so-called Little Ice Age , which was of great importance for the Netherlands due to the vulnerable topography. Therefore, meteorology with its weather phenomena is a key theme of Dutch culture at that time.
In the foreground of the picture the painter depicts areas of grass that were used to bleach linen. These fabrics were coveted as Toiles de Hollande , Haarlem was an internationally respected center of this trade and the artistic representation by Ruisdael can be seen as a symbol of the prosperity of the city at that time. However, in historical views, such as that of Lodovico Guicciardini , published in 1612, the pale Haarlems were just outside the city gates. Ruisdael placed them at a greater distance in favor of a fully depicted city silhouette. The view falls from the northwest, i.e. from the elevated perspective of the North Sea dunes near the village of Overveen, of the city. The dominant building is the St. Bavo Church . You can also see the town hall, the Bakenesser Kerk on the left , the Nieuwe Kerk on the right and several windmills.
In the foreground of the picture, in the lower right corner on the Dünenweg, Ruisdael has placed two people. An artist with a white collar sitting, sketching the view of the pale people on a piece of paper, and standing in front of him is a person making a sweeping gesture with their right hand.
The bleaches can also have a higher symbolic meaning, after all Ruisdael depicted the motif in many pictures. The art historian and Ruisdael connoisseur Wilfried Wiegand has expressed the idea that the sun-bleached cloths at that time gave people the idea of the purity of the soul owed to God . For the poet Jan Luiken (1649–1712), the bleached cloth evoked memories of the blessed in white clothes and refers to the Bible (Revelation 19: 8).
The American art historian and recognized Ruisdael specialist Seymour Slive (1920 to 2014) describes the picture with verses from the poem Clouds from the poetry book Miracle Fair - Selected Poems by the Polish poet Wisława Szymborska :
"... never to repeat, shapes, hues, poses and formations. Unburdened by the memory of anything they float effortlessly above the facts. "
Provenance and exhibition
Ruisdael has not dated his views of Haarlem, but it is assumed that these paintings belong to the later period of his work and dated them between 1670 and 75. The pale first appeared in trade in 1887 in Rudolph Lepke's Berlin art auction house as the collection of Count Kaspar Heinrich von Sierstorpff was auctioned. Heinrich Vieweg acquired the picture, which in turn was auctioned by Lepke in 1930 and now went to Bruno Cassirer . In 1949 it was bought by a Zurich art dealer for the Leopold Ružička Foundation.
The picture was presented in numerous international exhibitions.
- 1886 in Düsseldorf
- 1949/50 Zurich
- 1953 Neuchâtel and Zurich
- 1954 Rome, Milan and Cologne 1954
- 1959 Oslo
- 1981/82 The Hague and Cambridge (Mass.) 1981/82
- 1987 Basel
- 1994/95 Madrid
- 2000 in Amsterdam
literature
- Cornelis Hofstede de Groot : Description and critical index of the works of the most outstanding Dutch painters of the XVII. Century. Esslingen, Paris, London 1907–1928, Volume 4.
- Jakob Rosenberg : Jacob van Ruisdael. Berlin 1928, pp. 64, 75.
- Wolfgang Stechow : Dutch Landscape Painting in the Seventeenth Century. New York, 1966, p. 45 ff.
- Peter Burke : Venice and Amsterdam, a Study of Seventeenth-Century Elites. London 1974, pp. 3, 10 and 11.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Franz Ossing: Haarlem's cloud crowns. On meteorology in Jacob van Ruisdael's Haarlempjes (PDF; 324 kB), contribution to the Bonn Congress Air , Helmholtz Center Potsdam 2002.
- ^ Lodovico Guicciardini: Beschrijvinghe van alle de Nederlanden. Amsterdam 1612.
- ↑ Petra ten-Doeschate Chu, Paul H. Boerlin: In light of Holland. Catalog for the exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Basel , Zurich 1987, p. 224 f.
- ^ Wilfried Wiegand: Ruisdael studies, attempt at an iconology of landscape painting. Dissertation Hamburg 1971, p. 99 ff.
- ↑ Jan Luiken: Het overbloeiend herte. Haarlem 1767 (posthumously), p. 110 f.
- ^ Seymour Slive: Jacob van Ruisdael - Master of Landscape . Yale University Press, 2006. ISBN 1-903973-74-0 , p. 146
- ^ Seymour Slive: Jacob van Ruisdael. Catalog for the exhibition in the Mauritshuis , The Hague and in the Fogg Art Museum , Cambridge (Massachusetts), 1981/82, p. 128.
- ↑ Seymour Slive: Jacob Van Ruisdael. A Complete Catalog of His Paintings, Drawings, and Etchings. Yale University Press, New Haven 2001, ISBN 0-300-08972-4 , pp. 93 f. ( books.google.de ).