Creator Bio
Jacob Isaaksz van Ruisdael
1628–1682
Jacob van Ruisdael is considered the most important Dutch landscape painter of the seventeenth century, the best-known artist of the classical phase of Dutch landscape painting. Born in Haarlem in the Netherlands and the son of a little-known painter, he became a member of the Haarlem painters’ guild in 1648. After studying landscape painting in Germany, he moved to Amsterdam in the 1650s, where in addition to working as an artist he also practiced as a physician. Van Ruisdael’s landscape paintings are known for their lyrical atmosphere, often including brooding clouds and dramatic renderings of trees.